The ASL Pirates
by Canulear
Summary: Sabo hesitated and that was enough for Ace and Luffy to catch up to him. There was NO way he was going to become a pirate alone, his brothers would be joining him. And maybe they would find the perfect crew on their way. ASL Pirates adventures.
1. Chapter 1

**(Je sais que je ne suis pas supposée écrire une nouvelle histoire mais celle-ci ne voulait pas quitter mon esprit, ha bye)**

**It's gonna be all in english now. Before we start with this let's say that english isn't my first language but I hope I can manage to make a readable story. Don't have an english beta either so it's gonna be all me I apologize if anything sounds weird.**

**So I didn't really plan on a long running story. It was supposed to be a cute and funny one-shot but that clearly got out of hand the second I started writing so yeah I'm gonna make it clear, I don't know how long it's gonna last but I really love the idea of the kids actually fending for themselves without any authority figure (something I found too redundant in other kids ASL or kids Ace and Luffy stories).**

**Even if I aged up some characters and made others younger for the ASL Pirates to be a thing, the events of Grey Terminal happened the same way than in canon, the kids are older and probably a bit stronger but we'll figure it out as we go.**

**Not 100% sure who's going to be joining their crew yet so you can comment and give me ideas, why not.**

* * *

**Ages:  
****Luffy: 9  
****Ace: 12  
****Sabo: 12**

* * *

~ASL~

"Yes he's alive! I saw him at the old decks with a small ship." Magra said. They were sitting in the kitchen, Luffy was asleep in his plate all bandaged up from the fire, but Ace wasn't paying attention to him, he was focused on Magra's words, thinking fast.

"I think he was planning a trip but I can't be right, you kids are too young for..." The man continued but Ace was already leaving with Luffy, this one's plate was broken on the floor.

~ ASL ~

Ace was running as fast as his legs could pull him, he didn't have time. They didn't have time he thought, looking back at his little brother who managed to keep pace only because Ace wouldn't let his hand go. He wasn't about to leave him alone after... He almost lost Luffy again, he couldn't let Sabo leave by himself, there was no way! The forest opened on the beach and Ace saw red, Magda was right..

Sabo was still securing his boat, small dark vessel, when he got punched to the face. Falling into the sand he got ready to defend himself from the unprovoked attack but then he stopped. The oil lamp was barely enough to see but there was no mistaking them, Ace's furious form and Luffy, trailing not far behind. His younger brother immediately collapsed on the sand, panting, but Ace he… He looked absolutely furious.

In retrospect he knew he should have expected that, Ace would absolutely hate the idea of being left behind, even if it was for his own good. Sabo couldn't stay in Dawn Island, he couldn't bear the idea of still being stuck with as a noble, not after everything happened. Sabo was about to say just that when Ace spoke first.

"We're coming with you!" Yelled the freckled boy and Sabo could only stare.

"Wh-what?"

~ ASL ~

In the end not a lot of convincing was required, Sabo broke under Ace's glare and Luffy's tears as easily as a twig under pressure. If he was planning to leave and travel by himself it would be really hypocritical of him to forbid his brothers from joining. He had prepared (stole) enough food for him to last at least a month at sea but with his brothers he would need at least four times the amount, he wasn't even sure the ship could handle it.

"We should leave tomorrow then, and we need to hunt for more food..." Ace's punch still hurt and his glare was burning into his neck but Sabo couldn't really fault him. He was too relieved to see them alive and well after the fire.

"B-but we can't leave Sabo alone!" protested Luffy "He will try to run away again!"

Ow, Luffy, ow.

"I won't, I promise…" Sabo tried to placate him but his opinion didn't seem to be worth much at the moment.

"Luffy go with Sabo to get the food and our stuff, I'll guard the ship." said Ace, his voice was cold, his brother was still angry him and Sabo nodded with a small smile.

Luffy immediately sprung himself on Sabo's back, his limbs holding him tight.

"I won't let him go, Ace. We'll come back and then we'll sail all together!"

~ ASL ~

There wasn't much to bring in the end, the cabin was filled with cooked meat and the few belongings that were spared from the fire were fitted in one small chest.

A couple of minutes after the preparations, they laid to sleep on the deck. Or, to be more precise, Luffy passed out the second his head hit the pillow, snoring loudly, while the two other didn't. One of Luffy's arms was coiled around Sabo, and on the other side of the rubber boy, Ace was showing them his back. Sabo knew he wasn't sleeping and decided it was time to apologize. He took a deep breath, staring at Ace back.

"The nobles knew, all of them, about the fire." His voice wasn't much more than a whisper but he saw Ace's shoulder twitching at the sound of his voice, so he continued.

"I tried to warn someone, anyone but people knew and they just didn't care. I didn't even know if you were alive I… This country, these people, they're rotten." He continued, the memories flashing in front of his eyes, his voice getting thicker with emotion. Sabo tried not to think about it, when he stole the boat and bought it here he focused on stealing the ship that would free him, he didn't think about what happened. The preparations for the arrival of the Celestial dragon was actually a very good distraction and people didn't pay attention to him as he lead the ship out of sight.

Now he couldn't escape the thought of his family being still in the city, he wanted to prove how wrong they were, to show them that one one deserved to be treated like filth. If he saw his father or his mother again he feared he would just want to end them and everything they represented, thinking about Shelly's face even bought him some urges to kill. Sabo averted his eyes from Ace's back, looking at the sky.

"I should have told to you about it, but after I first got taken I… I couldn't face you, he said he would make sure you and Luffy would die and I listened." He could feel the tears rising to his eyes, he was still so angry. He didn't know if he actually hated the man but it was the closest thing to it.

The blond was surprised to feel Luffy's limb tightening around his arm, the younger boy didn't say anything, Sabo couldn't even be sure he was awake but his younger brother wasn't snoring anymore. A bubbling laugh left Sabo's lips, Luffy was really a treasure. He then noticed that Ace had turned around at some point and was staring at him. He wiped his tears and faced him, he trusted him not to throw him overboard but his words could hurt way more than any of his punches.

"Don't do it again." Ace said simply and laid to look at the sky. Relief flooded the blond boy, he smiled brightly and laid on his back again to do the same.

"I won't, I promise."

Sleep was peaceful and the three boys dreamt of their incoming adventures.

~ ASL ~

In the end they decided not to warn anyone, they could be certain that Makino, the Mayor and even Dadan would do everything to stop them. The idea was particularly hard on Luffy who was the most attached to the adults but his brothers convinced him that they could always come to visit when they were older and that settled the conversation.

Barely one hour after departure, Luffy dropped a bomb.

"Who's gonna be the Captain?" Luffy was looking at them innocently. Silence greeted him for a few seconds and as he decided to answer all brothers talked at the same time.

"It's very obviously …" "It's gonna be…" "I think…"

"ME!" said Ace and Luffy at the same time. They glared at each other and Sabo closed his mouth shut.

"What are you talking about, I'm not going to let my baby brother be captain no way!" said Ace

"Yes way! I wanna be a better captain than you!" screamed Luffy.

When Sabo and Ace planned to sail together when they came to age, they ended up deciding that Sabo would be the navigator and Ace the captain but with Luffy travelling with them it couldn't really happen. Or it could but Sabo would have to pick sides between his two brothers and he couldn't picture himself telling Luffy that he couldn't be Captain. Sabo looked at the nine-year-old-boy, his straw hat barely holding on his head, small, reckless, could barely fight. Indeed the youngest couldn't be captain either.

Ace hit his brother on his rubbery head and the blond made his decision.

"No way Ace-stupid, I'm the captain and Sabo is my navigator!" said Luffy hiding behind Sabo, he didn't want to be hit again.

"I want to be captain too" added this blond, a very calm smile on his face, he stared at Ace, hoping he'd get the message.

"Wh-what? No way!" screamed Ace, looking betrayed, it went over his head, obviously.

Disentangling himself from Luffy, Sabo explained.

"We beat the tiger king together didn't we? We can't sail alone anyway so we'll have to settle for all of us being captains of this ship. We can be the ASL pirates like on Goa!"

His two brothers stared at him for five seconds then promptly started arguing with each other again. Sabo just sat down, giving up for now, Ace would eventually figure it out. It didn't take more than three minutes.

"Then I'll find my own ship and get my own crew!" yelled Luffy, tearing up and ready to jump overboard. Sabo panicked, standing up to stop him but he was too far. Ace's eyes widened and fortunately he was close enough to catch his brother before he jumped.

"Hell no! ASL Pirates, we're the ASL pirates!" Ace yelled and Luffy pouted, not completely satisfied but Sabo ruffled his hair.

"You can have your own ship when you're older, will be way easier to find a crew when you're already a famous pirate, wouldn't it?"

Luffy blinked and a wide smiled replaced his pout, all was good. For now.

~ ASL ~

The first storm was kind of unexpected. Sabo knew how to read weather patterns but it wasn't his turn for the shift last night and he wasn't that good at reading the weather. Ace warned them before sunrise, not quite panicking but close enough. It took long enough for Luffy to be fully awake that's why the two elders took matters in hand to be able to lead the ship out of the storm.

"Tie the sails or the mast is going to break!" yelled Sabo over the wind as he was at the helm himself. Their rubber brother chose this moment to walk out of the cabin.

"Luffy!" called Sabo "Go to the rudder and direct it for me, we need to get out of this storm!" still yawning and not as worried about the situation as he should be, Luffy obeyed even though he didn't look like he knew what he was doing. "Move it to the left!" Sabo screamed over the wind, he could see Ace struggle with the sails but was successful in binding them without falling.

It took them a bit more than forty minutes before they could relax, that's when Luffy fell overboard. It seemed like he simply tripped on some rope and that was enough to send him into the waters. Sabo saw it first and jumped into the ocean, he was able to see Luffy sinking fast, the anchor, but the blond managed to pull him above. Ace threw them a rope and they got back on board.

"You stupid rubber brain!" Ace punched Luffy's head.

"Ow!"

"Be more careful next time, Lu. We're lucky we're out of the storm otherwise it would have been tricky to fish you out." said Sabo more gently.

"Sorry…" said their youngest brother. "But I know I can trust you guys to always get me back!" Ace and Sabo looked at each other and the blond sighed, they might have to tie the kid to the mast next time.


	2. Chapter 2

**I was surprised how well the first chapter was received, not a lot of reviews but enough followers to motivate and I wouldn't want yo disappoint you guys. Here's the new chapter before I leave for vacation, hope you like it!**

* * *

The weather was rather calm and the two eldest brothers were sitting on the main deck.

"You say we're out of food" mumbled Ace, his face pouting at the empty barrel.

"Yeah we are, I wonder who ate all the rations I asked to keep for today." shrugged Sabo in a tired voice even though it was a lie. Ace and Luffy did eat the last barrel last night, but Sabo managed to save the equivalent of three meals the day before, mostly dry meat and other non-perishables. He hid them in a secret cupboard near the helm. They will probably need the emergency rations one day with those two hungry dogs. If his calculations were right they should arrive by the next morning, they'll live until then. He had this responsibility to keep them alive with enough food because neither Luffy nor Ace would be able to keep the food stocks without stealing some for themselves. Greedy pigs.

Life on the ship with his brothers was way different than back at the forest, Sabo had to use up way more restraint and maturity than ever before and it was slowly getting to him. He couldn't wait to arrive to their first island. Ace seemed to have noticed his bad mood and offered him a smile.

"I'll have you know, Luffy ate almost as much as me." This sentence somehow got a laugh out of Sabo despite his initial annoyance.

"You don't need to sound so proud you rascal, now we don't have anything until tomorrow."

Luffy jumped from the head of the ship, having heard their conversation.

"No food?!" He whined and then he was making his best puppy face at the blond but unfortunately for him, Sabo was fully immune to it by now.

"Puppy eyes won't help the situation Lu. " He mumbled pushing Luffy's face away with his palm, he wasn't using the rations until they were truly desperate.

"We will need to buy some food with the money I have left (stolen) from Goa. It's really too bad we don't have the treasure anymore."

"All burnt" nodded Ace. They both sighed sadly while Luffy kept pushing his face against Sabo's to try to get him to give up the food he smelled they had with his puppy eyes.

"We need to fool the people at the harbor into thinking we're adults, any ideas?" added Sabo, trying to distract Luffy from food so he wouldn't be so insistent.

"We could pretend we have a guardian in the cabins and he's sick?" said Ace, it almost sounded reasonable, but a bit too suspicious seeing how small their ship was.

"Hey we could use our old disguise! Y'know, like back in Dawn Island!" exclaimed Luffy.

Ace snorted at that.

"No way! Who would believe that? We didn't use this technique since we were 10, no way. It's stupid."

Sabo thought about it and then looked at Ace with a huge smile.

"Actually…"

~ ASL ~

Sabo sat on Ace's shoulders, quite comfortable. As the three of them would make a too tall adult, they decided only Ace and Sabo needed the disguise. Luffy would be their shy "nephew" who was instructed not to say anything. Or at least he should be when he stopped giggling.

"Why ..." complained Ace, his voice muffled by the fabric.

"Luffy could carry you but he has no sense of balance, and can you imagine him having to talk?" Ace grimaced at Sabo's wise words.

"So why are doing the top half?"

"Oh look we're arrived, keep silent." He could hear Ace's curses and muffled his laugh, it wasn't the moment.

The harbor was fortunately mostly empty this morning and they were actually left mostly alone once they paid the fee for the stay to the old man who kept the harbor this night.

"Welcome to the Humming Isles" He mumbled, barely looking at them. They were on the biggest island from the small Archipelago and they wouldn't need to visit the others.

Once they were in the city, they removed the disguise and set up their plans. Ace agreed with Sabo that the dark haired brother would be the one keeping Luffy's share, this one having no sense of money and would stay with him.

"Don't get out of my sight, Luffy" mumbled Ace, taking his wrist and pulling him along.

They needed supplies before they could leave the island.

~ RZ ~

His ship was drifting around and there was nothing he wanted to do about it. It has been only a couple of weeks since he left the dojo and thinking about it brought a very sour taste to his mouth. Kuina was dead and he could do nothing about, nothing but keep their promise.

"...to become the best swordsman in the world!"

Roronoa Zoro rolled around, staring at the wood of his boat. After her death he… he might have been too quick to lose his temper, he might have uselessly fought every single student and adult in the dojo and won, all the adults except for one.

"I'm not fighting a grieving child." said the emotionless voice of his master, Kuina's father.

The green haired kid looked at the dark cloudy sky, it was still the middle of the day but too dark for the sun to poke through. He closed his eyes. It's been already four days and he was getting hungrier and hungrier, the rain from the day before calmed his thirst but he still wanted food. He started to regret leaving the dojo so early, how was he supposed to find money at eleven years old?

Suddenly his boat stumbled against something, the boy stood up to look at what was going on. White sails, it looked like a merchant's ship, taking his small bag of belongings he decided to climb on it with the idea of food in mind. Luckily no one seemed to notice the discreet small swordsman and he was able to find some barrels of fruits and fish. He feasted gladly, things were looking up.

~ ASL ~

Sabo poked at the kid's cheek, it seemed to be efficient enough at waking him up from the shock. It was really weird, he thought, he was too used to Luffy's resilience, now he met a normal kid and accidentally pushed him to the ground.

"Are you okay?" He asked as the pink head rose up from the floor. Yup, he was totally crying, Sabo sighed and helped gathering the kid's belongings that fell on the floor, a fishing rod, some clothing and… a pouch full of coins. Sabo thought about it then gave everything back to the pink head. He felt like he was above robbing a child… unless he was a brat but the kid stayed silent, still sniffing, not a uppity noble then, he was done.

"Okay you look okay enough, see ya." said Sabo, his kindness quota was empty and he had stuff to do.

"W-wait!" said the kid, quickly wiping his face with a tissue and followed him.

"S-sorry I-I er…" Sabo stared and waited.

"I… Can I….Y-you're not from around here, are you? I-I want to leave for the sea!" He said, his voice sounding determined enough but his expression showed that he wasn't quite believing his own words. Sabo smiled, amused, the kid wanted a friend, he could do friend, he started walking again pulling him along, he could be a nice distraction.

"Really? That's pretty cool! What's your name, I'm Sabo."

His answer gave the pink kid enough confidence to answer him without stuttering.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Coby".

~ ASL ~

"Fooooood~"

"Lemme go Lu'! We're almost there." They just finished buying most supplies they needed and Luffy just remembered he was really hungry. And Ace was too he decided, he kind of guessed Sabo hid some food on the ship but decided to let him deal with the stocks, he would trust him to keep them alive. Ace knew he himself couldn't really to resist the temptation.

"We're gonna get food but we're not paying got it? Dine 'n dash, remember?" He said cheekily, bodily pulling Luffy's body away from his, the rubber boy still stuck to him nodded happily until the sight of a restaurant caught his attention. Ace obviously hadn't bothered telling those plans to Sabo but he was certain his blond brother would appreciate his considerations for their finances and hopefully be done with his groceries by the time they were done eating. Otherwise… Well they'd have to run fast.

~ ASL ~

"Y-yes! I want t-to be a marine!"

Sabo raised an eyebrow, that was unexpected. For a kid that young he was pretty ambitious. He wasn't that sure they took in children that young, so he wondered.

The blond also found the irony absolutely hilarious, he wondered if he should tell him he was a pirate.

"Why?" Sabo asked Coby.

"B-because I want to be a hero, I don't want to be just a fisher like my dad…"

"A hero uh? Good luck buddy you need to be a lot stronger. But there's no Marine bases on this Archipelago if I recall." He chose these islands for a reason.

Coby nodded negatively.

"I have a bit of m-money and I want to buy a fishing boat to get to another island."

"Do you even know how to navigate?" Sabo asked.

Cobys cheeks brightened, getting a laugh out of Sabo again.

"I uh… I'll f-figure it out" he looked like the thought of it would make him pass out.

"What about this, me and my brothers take you to the next island and you give us your money."

"Uh? You have a ship? But you're so young!"

Sabo laughed again at his expression, what a fun kid. He was about to answer when he saw something flying straight at him.

Sabo wasn't fast enough to dodge and got hit. Fortunately the bushes behind him softened his fall, he realized what the thing was, it was a Luffy cannonball.

"Luffy?! What the f-"

"Hey Sabo hey, Ace said we need to run! Hi pink dude!" The young boy said to them, still sprawled on his brother.

"Uh… Hello uh-" Coby started but was cut by the blond.

"Ace said what?! What did you do?"

"Uh we got some food but we didn't pay and they got unhappy. Ace is losing them let's run to the ship!" Luffy laughed standing up already and Sabo sighed heavily then looked at Coby.

"My proposition still stands."

The pink haired hesitated but Luffy didn't give him more time to answer and took his wrist.

"Lets go!" He started to run, Sabo following them closely. It looked like Luffy took a liking to the new kid too.

~ ASL ~

Ace was still running in the streets, these people were surprisingly resilient more than the ones in Goa anyways. Since they didn't have a marine base, they still had their own trained militia meaning he had a dozen of men in uniform after him.

He could only hope Luffy was able to warn Sabo in time so they would be able to leave immediately.

Ace turned around another building and jumped on some boxes over a wall and then brought the boxes down with his foot. This should slow them down enough. Unfortunately a member of the militia apparently knew the streets better than him and appeared in front of the street he was heading to but he was able to bring the man down by hitting him right between the legs. He winced internally but he didn't show any mercy, better not be caught by those guys so early in his trip.

He got to the harbour in time to see their ship departing and jumped on board, letting his bag full of food and supplies fall to the floor. Sabo was undocking the ship and Luffy was talking to a pink haired kid, a stray he wondered. He'd have to ask his brothers later but now they needed to go asap.

Ace climbed on the mast, they were smart enough to tie the sails and the flag this morning so no one knew they were pirates, now though, Ace unfurled them happily, showing their ASL flag on a black background, Ace drew it himself and was proud of it.

"Lets go!" Screamed Luffy full of joy, the other kid though was white with fear looking at their flag.

"You're PIRATES?!"

~ ASL ~

"You didn't say y-you were pirates!" He stammered accusingly at Sabo. The blond barely paid attention and smiled.

"You didn't ask."

Coby suddenly realized something important.

"I-I was kidnapped by pirates…" pint sized pirates, he thought to himself, barely able to breathe.

Luffy, as he told him earlier, was laughing heartily at him but honestly didn't look all that threatening for a kidnapper but Coby was eight years old, he was still a child and was terrified. Mostly of the dark haired teen who was walking towards him and glaring.

"Aiiiii d-don't kill me p-please!"

He passed by him and pulled Luffy by his cheek.

"What kind of stray kid did you bring Luffy?"

"Aaafe s'no my faul- Fabo'v faul" the mean teen looked at Sabo.

"It was a business proposal for money. What about what you did? How did you get the whole militia after you?"

Suddenly the dark hair kid let Luffy go and looked pretty sheepish with a small smile on his face.

"Er… we wanted to go to a restaurant but they didn't let us so we went in anyways and stole some food." He pointed the huge round bag laying on the floor. Sabo sighed and before he knew it, Coby was witnessing the two teens arguing on the deck.

"Hey hey pink head." Luffy poked his cheek and he turned to look at him.

"I'm Coby…" he whispered still worried about the teens behind him.

"Yeah whatever pink head, why are you here?"

Coby blushed at the absurd question.

"You're t-the one who…"

"No no, why'd want to come with us?" Coby's anger cooled immediately and he stammered to give an answer and the more he waited the closer the other kid got.

"I-I want to b-be a marine! The best one!" He added vehemently, his face was bright red but he was happy he was able to get it out even if he risked the mean teen's wrath. Luckily he seemed to still fighting Sabo.

"That's so cool!" Said Luffy and Coby stared at him, not expecting that answer.

"I'm going to be the King of the Pirates! We have a matching dream, pink head!" the kid said, setting his straw hat back on his head.

"M-matching? That's not… And I'm still Coby" he mumbled still taken aback from Luffy's words. Luffy didn't seem to hear him, distracted by the bag of food next to the other teens. He stretched on hand to catch a cooked chicken leg and munched on it.

"Aiiiii! How did you do that?!"

"That? I'm a rubber man, I ate the rubber fruit!"

"You WHAT?"

* * *

**I changed Coby's motivations kind of, him wanting to be a marine and his dad not appoving. Sorry no Alvida, I'm not sure she's even a pirate just yet. Also his dad is alive but he's not going to be relevant, his son planned to run away anyway so yeah.**

**Some Zoro action happening, you can guess who will be the first crewmate. I'm not sure about adding all the strawhats just yet (Usopp seems pretty fine by himself) so I'm thinking about it and accepting any ideas you might have about other characters (I might even add Law for the heck of it).**

**Please do leave some reviews and I might just get the next chapter faster.**

**See ya !**


	3. Chapter 3

**I'm trying to publish this from my phone, holidays are nice and I get lots of time to write yay. ****I'm realizing that I write from Sabo's point of view a lot more than Ace and Luffy, dunno why, this kid talks to me I guess. I'll be working on it.**

**Edit: Fixed the phone publication issues**

* * *

**Ages reminder:**

**Luffy: 9  
****Ace: 12  
****Sabo: 12  
****Zoro: 11  
****Coby: 8**

* * *

Luffy found Coby hilarious. He was smaller and weaker but he was also new, so new and shiny and different from the other kids he could remember before Ace and Sabo. The pink head was just so scared but he could see he was looking at Sabo a lot and obviously wanted to talk to his brother but didn't dare. When Luffy asked, Coby blushed and said that Sabo was nice, not like the "mean one" and Luffy told him, laughing, that his name was Ace and both of them were his brothers.

"You're all brothers? But you don't look-" He stopped, nodded to himself and shook his head.

"Nevermind."

"Shishishi I don't get it but you're really fun. We can go talk to Sabo now, he's probably hungry, let's get food!"

He pulled Coby with him (without asking his opinion) and opened the stock room, they didn't organise everything in barrels yet and the bag of food was still displayed on the floor and Luffy rushed to find some meat.

"B-but Luffy, we just left an hour ago, maybe we should ask-" Coby's stomach groaned and the kid blushed. Laughing and almost choking on his food, Luffy threw an apple at him. Coby barely caught it and seemed to think about it for a couple of seconds before biting in.

Once Luffy was satisfied, he found Coby staring at him in disbelief, commenting on how much food he was able to eat and Luffy took the bag of food for his blond brother.

~ ASL ~

"I don't like the pink kid." grumbled Ace, appearing behind Sabo at the cabin. He was done checking the ship and was supposed to stand guard at the crow's nest but got absolutely restless, that's why he went down to the cabin to talk with his brother. Sabo was checking the map for the next island. The freckled teen looked at their trajectory from Dawn Island, it seemed like they somehow missed a couple of places but were heading to a small dot called Shell Island.

"You don't? He's absolutely harmless." One eyebrow raised Sabo leant up from the desk.

"I dunno, he wants to be a marine and he… he has a bad influence on Luffy…" Things went too silent since Coby arrived, Luffy usually spent all his time with him… Seeing Sabo's expression, Ace blushed brightly.

"I'm not jealous! I don't trust this kid to take care of Luffy!" his hands turned into fists, ready to defend his claim, Sabo's smile just widened.

"I'm not saying anything, but I think you've been overprotective since the fire, you spent all your free time with him. Luffy needed a breather." Ace blinked at this claim, relaxing a bit but was still unhappy. Sabo put his pencil down and smiled cockily.

"I'm the one who should be jealous, when was the last time we actually sparred together, just you and me?"

Ace blinked and his annoyed expression turned into a challenging smile.

"You're so on!"

~ ASL ~

A couple of minutes later found them on the main deck, punching the hell out of each other, no weapons allowed.

Sabo went seemingly easy on the dark head and Ace won the first spar. At the second one, Luffy and Coby joined to watch them fight, and Ace being distracted by Luffy's food got a kick on the head and lost the second brawl.

"Hey my turn my turn!" The youngest brother left the food behind and wanted to join their brawl, Ace, kind of hungry, sat next to Coby, who suddenly straightened like a bow, still terrified of the glaring teen.

Like usual, Luffy tried one of his rubber attacks and actually managed to throw his pistol punch right but Sabo dodged easily.

"You're improving on offense Lu, wonder if you can take that"

While Luffy's arm bounced back to him, Sabo took advantage of his loss of balance to give him a sold punch to the gut and the younger one groaned in pain but to his credit didn't fall. Luffy tried to hit him with a Gum Gum no Bazooka but he was far too slow to catch Sabo who swept his feet under him.

"I win again. You still did well Lu" Sabo added gently and Ace pushed Coby forward.

"Your turn, pinkie" Coby just stared at Sabo before turning white.

"M-m-m-me?"

"Don't you want to be a marine? You'll need to be able to beat pirates up." Smiled Sabo, cracking his knuckles, finding his expression pretty funny. He wouldn't actually hit him as hard as he would Luffy but the kid needed a wakeup call one way or another if he really wanted to be a marine.

"I-I-I d-don't…"

"Hey Coby fight me then!" sprung Luffy, behind Sabo, standing up like he hasn't just been punched and kicked to the ground.

"Yeah, fight Luffy." smirked Ace, throwing a tomato at Sabo and the blond caught it easily, also hungry. He shrugged biting into the fruit, sitting down next to Ace. Before he could take another bite, Ace fell asleep in a narcolepsy attack and Sabo got to steal some of his meat.

Neither Luffy nor Coby noticed, the younger one never fought anyone in his life and was absolutely livid at the idea of getting hurt.

"Hey don't worry, I won't be mad if you fight back! You're my friend, I want to help you to get stronger!" Luffy's words were heartwarming for Coby who never had friends back in the Humming Isles. Hesitantly he copied Sabo's position at the beginning of the previous spar, almost tearing up but determined to at least try.

~ ASL~

Maybe Coby should have removed his glasses thought Sabo, munching on his chicken. On normal people, Luffy's attacks were pretty scary from the receiving end. Even he wouldn't want to get caught in that if he was perfectly honest. Fortunately Sabo turned out to be fast enough to always avoid his blows, who would have thought that a rubber fruit could be this useful. (Not that he'd admit it to him, he'd be just too smug to hear that).

After the first hit to his arm (Luffy's aim was off), Coby surprisingly didn't give up (unlike what Sabo expected). He even tried to punch Luffy back but he still held back. As much as he didn't want to get hit, he seemed even more terrified at the idea of hurting Luffy and attracting the wrath of his brothers.

After getting a second hit to the face and falling to the ground, Coby didn't stand up. His glasses were missing a lense but it rolled not far from him and could be fixed. His black eye and swollen cheek though were turning into an ugly purple.

Sabo was surprised with Luffy too, at first he went full in term of strength but started to hold back his attacks halfway there, probably learning how hard it was to restrain himself. Overall it was a really good lesson for both of them. They would need to make it happen again.

~ RZ ~

The merchants weren't so nice with people that stole their food it seemed. Fortunately, they didn't notice before the next day, when they docked to the new island. Zoro didn't even know what it was called and immediately ran towards the city, didn't matter much to him where he was going, he knew he didn't want to experience this again. He needed a way to get money to be able to survive by himself.

Zoro walked around for a while and a couple of hours later walking in the city in circles he somehow got into a bar, which was pretty weird because he was way too young to drink.

He still walked in and asked for water (they wouldn't make him pay for it now, would they?) and the barman looked at him briefly before giving him a glass. Zoro was relieved, he was getting a tired and thirsty.

"Hey kid, interesting sword you have here, would you sell it to me?" Asked the man sitting to his right. Suspicious, the green haired kid put his hand on his beloved Wado Ichimonji, like to protect it from any grabby hands.

"No." He then finished his water, pretending he wasn't uncomfortable under the older man's gaze. He looked like a perfectly normal adult, dark hair and eyes, except for the scar on his nose and the tattoo on the right side of his neck and his green bandanna. Actually he looked nothing like a normal adult, he could even see some golden teeth behind his frigid smile.

"Are you alone? You look like you need some help." The man said next and he was giving him a really weird vibe, Zoro had enough listening to the man, and stood.

"No, don't need anything." He stood up and was about to leave but noticed from the corner of his vision, the man raising his arm to hit him. He wasn't able to avoid the blow completely and fell to the floor, it would bruise and Zoro was getting annoyed.

"You're in the wrong kind of place kiddo, you better give me your sword or…"

Zoro didn't hesitate any further and sliced the man's raised arm before he could strike again. His scream getting everyone's attention on them but as the man stayed on the floor, he shackled his sword. What a waste of time, he would have to clean the blood off Wado too.

He kept an eye around them, in case someone else wanted a try, Zoro was still good enough to beat any adult who bothered him. He didn't plan on staying around any longer though.

"Thanks for the water." He mumbled and walked towards the door. On his way out, some poster pinned to the wall got his attention. Jimmy the Bandit, one and a half million berry, it was a young man with a scar on his nose, a green bandana and a tattoo on his neck. He looked back at the bleeding man and it just clicked.

On the other hand, maybe he would stay for a bit longer, Zoro smirked. Jimmy the Bandit finally stood up, finally getting over his shock, still bleeding and looking absolutely furious.

"Oi! You're going to pay for that!"

Zoro got his sword ready, maybe he would be able to afford some new ones with the money of the bounty, he missed the three swords style.

~ ASL ~

The next couple of days were pretty peaceful. Luffy still spent a lot of time with the newcomer but sometimes Coby visited Sabo to see what he was doing, navigation stuff bore the hell out of Luffy and Ace was glad to help him with that.

With Coby's arrival the sleeping arrangements needed to be changed and Sabo ended up sleeping with the pink haired kid in the first cabin because Ace didn't want to and didn't trust Luffy not to fall overboard with Coby. It happened once, a couple of days before the Humming Isles. They all slept on the deck, Luffy fell into the water in his sleep and Ace still wasn't over it. This arrangement was alright in the blond's opinion, Coby didn't snore and didn't take much space and everything was fine.

Sabo looked at the barrel, remarkably empty, they would be out of food soon, again. They didn't plan for Coby, who despite not eating much, was still a breach in their stocks and that needed to be fixed soon. Interestingly enough, Coby was the one who offered a solution.

"I-I can fish if you want. I'm n-not an expert or anything but…"

"Really?! Teach me! Teach me!" Exclaimed Luffy, Ace huffed, mumbling something about 'finally being useful' and Sabo smiled approvingly. Coby was also getting less and less shy the more days he stayed and sparred with them, he would be a good marine he guessed, in a far future, with an excellent training, probably, with some luck.

"I didn't think of that… We do have a fishing net but we don't know how to use it." Indeed, Sabo had found it in ship after he stole it and when they first tried it Luffy kept clumsily falling into the water. After his third swim, (and since they couldn't keep him away from it) they just decided to give it up, but with Coby teaching them, they might make it work.

Ace grumbled something about checking their course and Sabo just let him, they would be in Shell Island in a couple of days, their deal with Coby would be over and Ace would stop brooding.

~ MDG ~

The letter trembled between his fingers, the paper slowly tearing up while he didn't even finish reading it.

"Don't have any news... left to become pirates… not my fault." wrote Dadan and her distress didn't bring him any satisfaction. Monkey D. Garp was annoyed.

How dare they leave like this after all he did for them!? They were so young why the hell would they want to leave this perfectly safe island!?

Unfortunately the Marine Vice Admiral himself was still in Mariejois, dealing with some important business Sengoku sent him to, but there was no way he was letting the kids to be pirates like this. Ace was twelve, like his Sabo friend and Luffy was only nine for God's sake. He would sent some Marines under his command and spread the word in East Blue. A recommendation letter from Garp himself should be a good enough motivation. He was hoping they would get stopped before they got themselves killed. This time, when he got a hand on those kids, he was taking them with him, they would become marines no matter what.

Multiple East-Blue bases got a very important call about three lost children that Vice Admiral Garp would do anything to get his hands on. Descriptions were distributed and the chase began.

Captain Morgan, newly Commander of the 153th branch of the city of Shell Town, received his orders as well and promptly ignored them. Why should he even care about three random kids? He had his own city now and as the new taxes were put in place and the new reforms solidified he would be the most powerful of Commanders. He still read the descriptions, just in case.

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**Here it is! What a peaceful chapter, no worries some a****ction is coming to Shell Town.****I know it looks pretty raw, ****I will make some final corrections when I have an access to a computer with internet.**

**Don't forget to comment!**

**See ya ~**


	4. Chapter 4

**Reviews**:

**SonarPrime**: Oh do not worry I have lots of fun plans for them! As for the Whitebeard pirates, well let's say they _will _get their attention as soon as they get to Grand Line. Which is a whiiiile away but hey, something to look forward to?

**WhiteyWolf26**: Zoro is obvious but I really want something interesting for his arrival, so you'll need to be more patient! Usopp's plot is going to have to wait, he's staying with Kaya for now, sorry for any Long-nose lovers. I'll think about some weird plot to make him still happen on the crew later tho.  
It would be pretty cruel of me to leave the poor Nami in Arlong's hands, wouldn't it? Maybe I have something planned for this plot, maybe not.

**Hides-story:** Jealous Ace is the best Ace.

* * *

**AN: The ASL and RZ timeline doesn't make sense so don't pay attention to it, I'm just figuring out how to pace this until they meet ha.**

* * *

**Ages reminder:**  
**Luffy: 9**  
**Ace: 12**  
**Sabo: 12**  
**Zoro: 11**  
**Coby: 8**

* * *

"Ehh, what a boring island." mumbled Luffy, looking at Shell Town. It was a pretty typical place for East Blue, it actually looked a lot like his hometown, not Goa but the vibe was pretty similar to Dawn Island small villages, like Fuusha.

Behind him the SaboAce disguise was put on, this time Ace was doing the top half while Sabo was hidden in the dark fabric.

Coby shared his doubts about this disguise. "Anyone with brains would notice that it's two kids piled up…"

"You'd be surprised, ow careful my face Ace!" mumbled Sabo who dodged another 'accidental' kick.

"We almost never got caught, I used to be part of the disguise but now it's too tall and Ace says I'm not convincing!" Luffy pouted.

Coby decided to just let them, he was anticipating joining the marines, he really hoped they would say yes.

"Remember, they don't take anyone under ten so you better lie about your age. As far as anyone is concerned you're just a ten year old on the smaller side."

Coby nodded at Sabo's advice, they talked about it the day before and the blond managed to see the argument through but he really didn't like it.

The two kids and one weirdly shaped adult entered the harbor. A marine guard glanced at them briefly before returning to his conversation with a merchant. A small bald man asked them the docking fee and as the new taxes required it, one in particular, the Morgan Fee. Quite unhappy Ace told Coby to pay with his berrys since he was the one they were here for and he ended up giving almost everything he had.

It was enough to buy a small boat, why the heck was the fee asking so much, thought Sabo. In the end they didn't have any trouble and after passing up another street, they found an empty one and Ace and Sabo were able to remove their disguise.

"Why the… It's so expensive" Mumbled Ace. "Now your turn to pay up, give up the rest and go to your Marine base."

Coby immediately gave the remaining of his berrys up without any second thought, it was the deal after all but Luffy didn't agree with Ace's plan.

"No way he leaves without a goodbye meal! Let's eat together and then I want to go check out the Marine base with Coby!" Sabo pulled at Luffy's cheek, agreeing with Ace this time.

"We're pirates Luffy, the less time we spend with him, the easier it will be for him to get hired. If he's associated with pirates they're not letting him in!"

Luffy pouted, not letting Coby's arm go.

"Lemme eat wif' hi' a leavst!" Luffy insisted and Sabo released his cheek.

"Alright alright, one meal and his food goes on your tab, got it?" Luffy's smile was worth it, decided Sabo and while he could feel Ace's annoyance he wouldn't comment on it.

The four boys entered the small tavern they found not far from their street. A young waitress welcomed them and found a seat for the four of them easily. As she left to get their order, the kids noticed how strange the atmosphere was. Most people didn't look too bad off in general but the mood was low and it was really silent for a tavern. Sabo elbowed Ace, whispering.

"Promise me we'll be paying for this one, we're not getting Marines on our asses." Plus Sabo didn't like the idea of robbing an establishment that looked like they needed it, they didn't even overprice the food, it was still very affordable.

"I promise whatever…" Mumbled Ace and the waitress came back. The young lady was called Ririka and she indulged Coby's question about the Marines. The word surprisingly brought an even darker mood to the tavern and Ririka's smile was stained.

"The Marines are not very liked around here…" She said lowly.

"Nevermind then…" mumbled Coby and their attention went back to their food.

~ RZ ~

"Yes, I'm the one who beat him. Can I have my money now?"

Zoro was pretty drained, having not only fought Jimmy the Bandit but also some customers from the bar who tried to take advantage of the situation. They got a couple of hits in and he used Jimmy's bandanna to keep his arm from bleeding out. He was quite annoyed to be forced to bring the unconscious adult man all the way to the Marine base he luckily could see looming of the bar's entrance. But the Marines didn't look like they believed him despite his injuries.

"Listen kid, you're too young to be travelling alone. Where are your parents?" asked another Marine and Zoro tsked at him, irritated.

"Don't have them. Can I have my money now?"

"Just stop lying, there's no way you beat Jimmy the Bandit by yourself, if you tell us who…"

"If you don't give me my money I take him back." Zoro said warningly but it completely went overhead the marines who didn't expect him to be able to do well on his threat. A tall Marine interrupted their debate.

He was Rafold, the Lieutenant of this base and was in charge while the Commander was away. Zoro saw him as some kind of muscled beast, cropped brown hair, small blue eyes and apparently bored to death if his voice gave anything about his personality.

"Fine, whatever, let's fight. If you win, you get the bounty. Kill my boredom and I'll even go easy on you." He cracked his knuckles and looked like he expected the kid to run away crying. Zoro was really annoyed from this awful day and from being underestimated so much. With a wicked smile, he accepted the duel, it would allow him to get off some steam.

~ ASL ~

"You didn't really tell us why you wanted to be a Marine." Ace's bored voice asked not long after Ririka was gone. They got served their food fast enough and Luffy was already gouging himself like his stomach size had no limits (Coby was starting to believe there wasn't).

"I-I want to be strong! T-to protect what I care about." Coby said stammering but forcing himself to say what he thought because that's what Luffy did and Luffy was awesome. When he wasn't the equivalent of a vacuum cleaner, admittedly. Wait, wasn't his meat missing?

The mocking voice that interrupted their conversation didn't come from their table.

"That's soo lame!" A blond boy was sitting at a table near theirs and they noticed he wasn't alone. A marine was standing very still behind him, how didn't they notice him before?

"Who the heck are you?" Asked Ace, fortunately for them Luffy seemed to be completely distracted by his meal, and didn't hear what the blond kid said.

"I'm Helmeppo, and my Dad is Morgan the Captain Commander of this island so you better watch what you…"

"Haha look, his hair is sho weird!" Luffy laughed, his mouth full.

Indeed the blond kid had his hair slacked in an interesting way all while wearing some kind of small black suit that didn't really fit his small frame. Now his face was visibly getting redder and redder at the comment and the Marine behind him seemed ready to act at any signs of violence. Coby could see Ace's fist trembling, he looked angry, really angry, for him but he didn't want them to fight Marines here, it would defeat their purpose. But before the pink haired boy could try to placate Ace, Helmeppo ordered the Marine.

"Shoot them! It will teach the brats!"

Everyone in the room froze, Coby's words dying on his lips. To his credit, the adult hesitated, telling him it wasn't necessary. Behind them, people were scrambling around and leaving the place as fast as they could, no one wanted to get shot.

"Do it! Or my Dad will hear about this!" Helmeppo insisted and Ace was the one who ended it. He simply punched the blond kid straight to the face.

To be perfectly honest, before this whole scene happened, Coby would have never dared thinking that Ace liked him, or even didn't remotely dislike his existence. That was the feeling he got from the other kid since he joined them for this trip and he never felt the shift happening.

"That's for insulting Coby's dream, want another one for trying to shoot us?" Ace glared and terrified the kid looked at the hesitating marine. His eyes watering, his mouth opened and closed but seeing the adult still wasn't reacting, he seemed to decide to run away from the tavern. The Marine looked at them briefly then followed after the kid.

Coby was looking at Ace, a mix of emotions displayed on his face, he was happy that Ace defended him so vehemently, he didn't expect that from the guy who looked like he hated his guts from the beginning. At the same time Coby was also displeased by him for punching the kid and relieved at the same time because the child ordered the Marine to shoot them. Too many emotions and he didn't know how to deal with them.

The last customers seemed to be paying for their food as fast as possible (relieved that no one got shot) but the place was still emptying pretty fast. Ririka came to them and immediately apologized.

"Oh I'm so sorry dears, you should leave the island as soon as possible. The young Helmeppo is very serious about his claims. His father is the Captain Morgan, he would indeed send a small army to avenge his name, I'm so sorry it came to this!"

Of course her warnings didn't scare any of the pirate brothers and only Coby lost his colors, the situation was even worse than he thought.

"Shishishi don't worry about it!" Said a very happy Luffy, still eating everyone's food, mostly Coby's but the pink wasn't even hungry anymore. How was he supposed to accomplish his dream now? How could he trust in justice anymore, he was livid.

"Hey Coby, we can still go to another Marine base okay?" Sabo tried but Coby didn't agree with that idea at all. He always believed Marines should be fair and just. They shouldn't use their rank as an advantage against their peers. Seeing the reactions of the other customers he couldn't even say it came from just the kid. People here were terrified of the Marines and Coby just couldn't stand it. He stood from his chair and ran outside. Luffy followed after him immediately and when Sabo looked at Ace, he pointed at the waitress who was watching the kids leave. Groaning, Ace nodded and Sabo followed Luffy, the freckled boy would take care of the tab.

~ RZ ~

Zoro could feel the bleeding from his shoulder, the warm liquid seeping through his dojo uniform, ruining it for good. It was already more or less in pieces before but he knew now that trying to sow it back wouldn't save the garnement. When he gets the money that the Lieutenant has promised, he would be able to replace what he was wearing. Maybe a white shirt for change, and he needed swords, two more of them.

The young man wasn't all that worried about the Marine Lieutenant anymore. The man's skill with a sword was pretty awful, even worse than the adults of the dojo. The only annoying part was that he was still strong and any of his blows hurt way more than anyone else he'd ever fought. The blow on his shoulder was due to a mistake Zoro wouldn't reproduce, the other man's only technique was moving his sword around randomly, now Zoro figured him out it would be easy.

The adult got grazed in multiple places but he was still relatively confident, the kid knew how to use his weapon? So what? When he got pierced to the shoulder as well, his confidence lowered, he hadn't seen the kid move, then he saw the kid's gaze on him. Rafold kept trying to convince himself that he wasn't more dangerous than a child with a knife but he could feel himself not even believing his own thoughts anymore, not after he looked at that kid's eyes. He could fully believe that the young man fought Jimmy the Bandit and won now, it was just a matter of pride.

And Zoro knew he would defeat the man, he trained the sword for years, he knew the right technique to take down an adult twice his size, maybe he'll need to use it multiple times but this fight was over. The green haired kid prepared just as the Marine prepared another slash.

"**One sword style: Lion's song!**" In less than a second the young man was behind the Marine just as a slash appeared on the Marine's chest, it was just too fast and the Lieutenant fell to the ground. Zoro found that he needed to work on it a bit more before it was truly lethal but he would come around. Once he did, he'd allow himself to get the first earring, he got the idea from a story about a warrior he heard a while ago and he took it for himself. One earring per sword, he aimed for three, perfect.

"Can I have the money now?" he asked the other Marines fussing over their Lieutenant. The money was given and the first words about the bounty hunter demon kid were shared.

~ R ~

Ririka loved Shell Town, she loved the city, the life of their small town. She knew every street, every hiding spot she discovered as a child. She was born here and if she could build a family and die here, she would be happy. The young woman still knew of her town's faults, it was too small to be called a city, they had no renown history to attract visitors and it was mostly living off trade from merchants passing by and the Marine presence that still brought them advantages in term of security. Or it did, this town used to feel safe but since the new Commander arrived it wasn't that safe anymore. People feared pirates as much as they did Marines and Ririka hated it. She knew it could be different, she could remember feeling safe to play in the streets as a child as no one would dare rob anyone with such a strong Marine presence. She used to not be able to understand why children didn't play outside anymore, she used to be angry at the townspeople for being so passive, in a way she still was but kept it locked. They should fight, they should defend their city and if they did it together they might win! But no one listened to her, not to the small teenager girl that tried to rally them up, they heard her but didn't listen. It was too risky, too dangerous they said. But now she could hear another voice supporting her wild claims and she felt her hopes rising up again. The pink haired kid wasn't even ten and he spoke the same words she did.

She wasn't sure why she followed them in the first place, maybe she was worried, maybe just curious but as the crowd grew around them she realized she wasn't the only one interested.

"Marines are not supposed to take advantage of people! Why do you keep listening to your boss if his orders are bad?" The young boy said, despair and anger in his voice, she couldn't see his face but she knew he was crying. She was also acutely aware of the villager's glances at them, hesitating, thinking.

Finally someone else says it. She thought, a small smile forming on her lips echoing her rising hope. Maybe the Marines would listen to a child, as the saying said, from their mouth came the truth. Plus they hopefully wouldn't hurt children without orders. But the answer was cold and sad.

"Marines obey orders that's how it is. As long as Captain Morgan is in charge, he has the right to do what he wants." said one of the Marines with a somber look.

"That's not fair if the town hurts!" The kid added but the Marine wasn't listening anymore, and Ririka thought it was time to act up, to try something. If enough villagers talked them into it surely something could finally change?

"You're supposed to protect people!" she walked forward, her hands trembling. Ririka briefly wondered how the people could watch a child defend them, she couldn't, not anymore.

The Marine didn't seem to know what to tell her and she felt powerful, like she was gaining ground. Then another Marine arrived, he had orders.

"They come from the Tavern right? Bring those kids in, Captain Morgan's orders" His face turned to her and she made a step back.

"Her too."

* * *

**AN: ****Almost cut the chapter cause it was too long, I have some of them ready in advance but I'll post them in time when I'm sure about it.**

**If anyone is curious about it, the Marine who was protecting Helmeppo is dead, slaughtered by Morgan for being incompetent. Originally we were supposed to see it happen but it didn't flow well and the plot changed so I scratched it and he doesn't get to be a martyr, too bad.**

**Honest question to readers, I plan on Ace getting his fruit earlier than the manga. But should Ace get his Mera mera fruit soon (in the next couple of chapters) or should we wait until the Grand Line?**

**Thanks for reading, see you soon ~!**


	5. Chapter 5

**New chapter, thanks a lot to the kind reviews they really help a lot!**

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**Review(s):**

**WhiteyWolf26: **You make a very good point, if he got it too soon it would stirr a reeeeaal lot of trouble wouldn't it? And yeah as I absolutely adore Coby but I don't think he'll be a very good pirate to be honest, I won't rob him of this.

* * *

Ages reminder:  
Luffy: 9  
Ace: 12  
Sabo: 12  
Zoro: 11  
Coby: 8

* * *

Coby was regretting his life choices. Well not really, he couldn't really regret telling them a piece of his mind but maybe he could have waited a bit or done it more privately.

But he was just so so angry.

The pink haired boy idolized the World Government his whole life, he saw a Marine saving a kid's life when he was six and then freed the Humming Isles from a band of Pirates. Marines were heroes, they were fair, they weren't supposed to take advantage of this strength, Coby knew it wasn't right and yet...

Coby made a step back as the seven Marines turned their full attention to them. The waitress's presence surprised him, he didn't expect anyone to support him, he just wanted to get his mind out here. And he noticed how close Luffy was either, Sabo was here too, they followed him out of the Tavern. He wasn't alone, he shouldn't be so scared but he still felt horribly bad.

The kid was still crying behind his glasses, out of frustration and guilt because the first pirates he met were so nice and awesome and now they were in danger because of him. Not even counting the nice waitress, what was he supposed to do?!

Luffy and Sabo were stuck with him, surrounded and it was his fault, he couldn't even fight to try to help, he was sure he couldn't hurt an adult, he wouldn't even know how to start...

"Hey Coby, it's okay." said Luffy's voice and he looked up at the boy with the straw hat, the kid was barely a year older than him and he wasn't afraid of anything. Coby was envious of this attitude because the pink haired boy could never stop himself from thinking. He couldn't stop being afraid.

"We'll fight them off Coby and then we can kick Mogi's ass."

"Morgan, Luffy, his name is Morgan" mumbled Sabo half-heartedly. The blond wasn't as optimistic as his brother that they would be able to stop the Commander, plus they had no real reason to fight the guy really. They were pirates not heroes, he would try to convince Luffy otherwise but it was not the time, he could do that later, they had people to fight first.

To Sabo's surprise it wasn't their group, nor the Marines who made the first move.

The first rock was thrown by a villager and the Marines couldn't tell who did it at first. A second followed very fast and they found themselves dodging multiples projectiles from all directions, a bit too close to them Sabo thought but welcome all the same. Sabo jumped on the occasion and hit the first one between his legs with his pipe before he could react. The Marines were too busy paying attention to the villagers to notice his actions immediately and Luffy got to punch another Marine in his gut with his Gum Gum Pistol (not the Marine he aimed at but same difference), and when the group of Marines realized they were actually under attack there was only five Marines left standing. Sabo was not really synchronized with his brother, Luffy wasn't all that good at the teamwork thing just yet, Sabo always worked better with Ace, but his young brother was learning.

Coby was really impressed with them, he saw them fight before with each other but never in a team and their teamed take downs had him impressed -three Marines left- until one of them pulled a gun.

"W-wait! Luffy careful he has a gun!" He yelled, he couldn't fight an adult himself but he couldn't picture Luffy getting shot. The sound of the pistol echoed in the almost empty street and Coby saw the gunshot literally bouncing off Luffy and hitting another Marine Luffy was fighting.

The pink haired boy's mouth opened wide and he realized what happened. His rubber powers saved him! Then Luffy screamed.

"AAAAAAH It huuurts!" Sabo kicked the man that shot Luffy to the face until he fell into unconsciousness, bloody but still breathing, leaving only one Marine standing.

"Oh my god." mumbled Ririka, sitting next to the fallen kid, she hadn't seen what happened either.

"Luffy are you okay?!" Asked Sabo, his voice was tense and he didn't look away from the Marine.

This one looked younger than the others, he stayed behind during the fight, when the blond glared at him, he decided to cut his losses and just ran away.

Coby got to Luffy and Ririka, checking the damage to Luffy's belly and indeed he had a small bruise but nothing else. He let a sigh of relief.

"How did you do that?" Asked Ririka, in awe.

"I'm made of rubber but still ow… It hurt almost as much as when Gramps hits me!"

Coby blinked, okay Luffy might really be fine. Wait Gramps? He wasn't aware they had family.

"I didn't see the gun… Bulletproof uh? That's pretty useful." added Sabo trying to use a light voice but he staggered with a sigh of relief, he must have been as terrified as Coby was.

"Okay, we should get out of here before more Marines come." the blond said and Coby agreed with him but Luffy stubbornly didn't. And he could see that Ririka hesitated as well, Marines were looking for her too and Coby felt ashamed for trying to escape this island's problems.

"What? But we need to go and fight Mogi, you're not hurt are you?" He asked Sabo.

"Morgan, Lu', his name is Morgan and no we can't fight him!"

"Why not?" His inquisitive voice sounded to innocent Coby could believe that he honestly had no idea why they shouldn't. He was actually slowly getting to agree with Luffy, the waitress being the reason. Because of him she was a target, he couldn't just abandon the nice woman.

As they tried to make Sabo change his mind they realized that they were getting surrounded by way more Marines than before and the three boys took a fighting position while Ririka and Coby just stayed behind, struck by fear. This was a really troublesome situation.

~ ASL ~

Ace finished counting the money for their meal to the owner of the Tavern, he thought it was a real shame cause the man wasn't even there. And Ace didn't waste any time to make himself scarce as well, he guessed that Marines where looking for them after his little stunt with the blond jerk. Then he realized he had no idea where to go.

He left the tavern and went around the village, they wouldn't go near the Marine base, right? The streets were surprisingly empty and he was getting a little worried. Coby did look upset when he left, but it was just Coby, how bad could it be?

Pretty freaking bad he guessed once he followed the crowd to the village center, the Marine base a hundred meters or so from them.

Coby, Luffy, Sabo and the waitress lady, Ririka were surrounded by Marines and the big bad Captain Morgan himself was facing them with a smirk.

Ace was itching to join the fight but since no fight was happening (yet) he stayed back to check on the situation.

"Vice-Admiral Garp promised a nice sum and a reputation for the one who would capture his grandsons. Honestly if it wasn't for this one's straw hat I would never have suspected you kids…"

Ace's face went white. Luffy's expression was terrified. Sabo hid his face in his hands.

"Goddamnit Luffy…" Mumbled Sabo, his voice muffled, Ace sighed, if the situation wasn't so dire he would have punched his little brother himself, Sabo's pinch to his cheek would do for this time. Yeah there was no way they were getting caught by this guy to be given to Garp, the old man would kill them if he caught them.

Ace rounded the place to see if he could find a way out until he saw a very familiar smirking teenager.

Huh, that will do. Ace sneaked behind the blond boy and after knocking out the Marine soldier who guarded him (a swift metal pipe to his temple), he stole his gun and pulled Helmeppo to his chest to threaten him with it.

"No one moves!" he yelled, Luffy's happy yell of relief swelled some pride inside him and Cody's terrified and disapproving face was just a precious bonus.

If he was honest, he had no idea how to use this gun thing but it was fine cause he was really good a faking it. Good enough for Helmeppo to start sobbing in his arm too.

Everyone was looking at him now and he felt exceptionally proud, he was the master of the show, hell yeah. Yeah, Ace decided, he liked the attention.

~ RZ ~

One million and a half berrys. It was more money than he ever held in his short life and… yeah nothing. At least he was now sure he wasn't interested in it at all, he'd need the goods (food, swords, clothing) that comes with it but for the money itself he couldn't care less. He only had one objective in mind and would stop at nothing to reach it, money couldn't buy him the best swordsman in the world spot.

He finished his meal quickly enough, he was smart enough to hide a good portion of his money from people, he wouldn't underestimate human desperation after last time.

Zoro walked for a while and the town moved twice before he found the right shop, the night was falling soon but the clothing shop was still opened luckily enough.

The clothing was pretty bland but sold what he needed, he got a white shirt, some dark pants, dark boots (a bit big but he'll hopefully grow into them). He kept the bandanna of Jimmy, a bit bloody but a good memory. He still purchased a long red scarf he turned into a haramaki for his sword. Hopefully he'd have more to add to it soon enough. The owner from the shop was nice enough to lead him to the inn.

It's pretty dark it wouldn't do for a young man your age to get lost. Zoro shrugged it out and got another plentiful meal before going to sleep. Heh maybe having money wasn't all that bad. He'd need to find more bounties before the money ran out.

~ ASL ~

He should have guessed with Morgan's awful attitude but really he was hoping for a bit more. The man didn't give any crap about his child and something in Ace's stomach churned awfully.

"You can kill him for all I care, if he got caught he deserves to die." How cruel.

With disappointment and displaced anger, it could have been an easy getaway, he pushed him to the ground to let the blond go, it wasn't like he was a menace anyway. The sobbing blond ran towards his father but got immediately slapped to the face, passing out on the dirt and the situation wasn't getting any better.

That is until, the waitress, Ririka somehow got brave enough to face the man.

"Why? Why do you feel the need to oppress this city and its inhabitants? How can you call yourself a Marine when you're hurting us as much as pirates do!?"

Ace could see she was tearing up, probably picturing her own death after such demonstration but the freckled boy was in awe. She was absolutely badass.

That wasn't Morgan's opinion apparently because he immediately raised his Axe fist to slash at her. Sabo immediately went to shield her with his pipe but someone else reacted first to stop the Commander.

Ace didn't recognize him but the man looked like some kind of swordsmith with his leather apron. He was holding a crowbar and if his bulging muscles were any indication, his ability to stop the hit was genuine, he was pretty strong.

"Yamano-san!" said Ririka, surprised but Coby soon enough pulled her by her wrist so they could get out of here, they were both out of their league and as more villagers joined in the fight, it was turning into a full on battle. Ace joined Sabo and Luffy, the three of them breaking havoc and protecting Coby and Ririka.

The dozen Marines weren't numerous enough, or even willing enough to fight against the army of villagers and most of them surrendered or got knocked out.

"How dare you? Miserable insects! Soldiers, if you refuse to fight them you must kill yourselves! Right now, it's an order!" Morgan yelled, slashing at the swordsmith who started bleeding profusely from his shoulder. No villagers actually dared facing the man but the Commander already had a target in mind, the woman who dared facing him in the first place. Seeing the man approaching, Coby couldn't do much but dodge the first swipe by falling to the floor and hiding his head. He thought he was so dead but Sabo countered Morgan's swipe while Luffy clumsily punched his Iron jaw, which didn't do much but he managed to aim right this time. Seeing Luffy was now vulnerable, Morgan attempted to swiftly catch the boy but got a pipe to the side of his head, he hadn't seen the third kid jumping behind him. Ace got a solid punch to the face for his bravery but Sabo hit the adult between his legs for his distraction.

Morgan had a pretty good pain resistance ratio in general but even he folded in half when he got hit there. Ace was swaying and bleeding from his nose now (it was probably broken) but he wouldn't lose the opening that Sabo offered him and hit Morgan's head a second time. In the meantime Sabo was able to pull Luffy away and Ace retreated as well. The freckled boy hurt pretty bad but he wouldn't give up the fight now, not with his brothers facing the man.

The Captain Morgan looked absolutely furious now, his bloodshot eyes would give the young Coby nightmares for a while, in fact he was bleeding from his temple pretty badly but didn't look like he was giving up any time soon.

Nodding to each other, the three brothers went to attack him again, even if they didn't look like much, they knew that they could wear him out eventually and they were right. Sabo might have fractured a couple ribs when the man got him with the blunt side of his axe, Luffy wasn't able to completely dodge a swipe to his arm and Ace's head was spinning badly from another punch to his head but the man was down and everyone was cheering.

Ace let himself fall to the ground, his head hurt way worse now the adrenaline wasn't pumping anymore. He closed his eyes and slept.

~ NN ~

She'd been sailing for four days now from the last island now and she looked at the future with dread in her stomach. The past two hours the storm had been raging and she was getting desperate, she didn't know how long her small boat could handle it and once the water swallowed her...

Blinking her tears away (from the wind, the salty wind, nothing else) she thought about her sister, her village. She would do this for them, she couldn't die here. With renewed energy, she pulled at the rope to hold her boat steadier, she would handle this storm and get to her destination safely, yes she would, there was no other alternative.

* * *

**Shell Town arc is ending, we'll come around finding crew members no worries. I still have to think about Ace's (and Sabo's) fictional crewmates. There might be a delay next time.**

**Thanks for reading, see ya!**


	6. Chapter 6

**Not as much delay as planned, ****I'm leaving my city for a couple of days so I'm not sure when I'll be able to post anything. I'll try to tho, just saying.  
****You guys are awesome keep the reviews going, it gives me motivation! **

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**Review(s):**

**WhiteyWolf26: **You're absolutely amazing and you make the story go way faster than planned haha.

And yeah they're a lively bunch and I'm going to try to keep it that way.

Garp will do his part no worries, or actually yes worries because it's Garp we're talking about, Coby will not expect what's coming for him.

I'm not telling about Nami but you're in for a couple of surprises ;)

As for the crew, well, they need to stick together because otherwise they will not get anywhere close to grand line. It's gonna be complicated but I'll stick the pieces together with some strong glue and determination, for now anyway.

**buterflypuss, Smiley-Nami and Guest: **Thank you so much for your kind words, you're giving me of courage to continue writing!

* * *

**Ages reminder:**  
**Luffy: 9**  
**Ace: 12**  
**Sabo: 12**  
**Zoro: 11**

* * *

~NN~

She landed on a deserted beach at dawn, exhausted but in one piece. Her boat wouldn't be able to sail anymore but she was safe and she was sure she arrived to the right island. She knew that the Oykot kingdom was big enough to be a called a small continent and she was hoping to find help here.

The rain was still pouring so she didn't dare taking the risk of checking her map. She wouldn't forgive herself if she damaged the precious item, she sighed removing the wet hair from her face.

The young girl didn't take that much supplies to come here, most of the food was already consumed and except for some navigation supplies and spare clothing she didn't take anything. There wasn't much to take anyways after…

She shook herself from her thoughts and went for cover. From where she was she could see a path probably leading to a village, that's where she would start her search.

~ ASL ~

The tavern was pretty animated this evening, Luffy spent the time after the fight getting thanked by villagers and stuff then they got taken care of for free by the doctor. It was interesting cause Luffy couldn't remember even visiting one before. Doc bandaged his arm and it hurt so so much when he poured the antiscep something, fortunately Ace wasn't here to see him cry like a baby. Sabo was but Luffy was way more worried when he saw how hurt he was on his stomach, the bruises were ugly to look at but the doctor was optimistic enough.

"Just don't move too much and you'll be fine, your other brother will need a couple of weeks to be healed thoroughly. The damage to his nose isn't too bad and it set back easily but his head was cracked pretty bad when he hit the floor."

That's why they couldn't leave yet despite the threat of Gramps looming on them as Sabo was reminding him. As he sat and ate after the doc left to take care of some hurt villagers, Luffy thought that endless free meals was a nice way to thank them.

"If your granpa is after us we will leave as soon as possible… If we're at sea he can't really know where we're going and can't find us". Sabo's words reminded him of something Mogi said before the fight.

"Mogi said his "three" grandsons, so you're part of his 'grandsons' too now? Guess he adopted you too shishishi" laughed Luffy and seeing Sabo horrified expression only laughed harder until he choked on his food. The blond was quick to slap it better and Luffy barely paused before getting another handful of meat down his throat.

Coby was animatedly talking to Ririka at the bar, apparently they were good friends now and Luffy was happy for him, he had more friends now here, and the whole city seemed pretty happy about them, even the Marines. Luffy had wondered if they knew they were pirates, he wanted to remind them but Sabo would punch him again if he did, it happened once when he told Ririka, he didn't want to get hit again. Even if later in the evening, Luffy promptly forgot not to tell their plans to leave the island to Ririka and Coby but she laughed. She wouldn't try to stop their thirst for adventure.

Coby told them he was going to stay with Ririka until he was able to join the Marines, Sabo had huffed that he didn't need to wait until he was of age but Coby explained.

"I want to be strong enough so they will have to take me in no matter how old I am! If I'm that good they won't have a choice!" He smiled brightly and he wasn't even stammering much anymore and Luffy was really happy for him, he needed to hug him again.

Leaving his food behind, minus what he already had in his mouth, he latched onto his embarrassed younger friend, he would miss him a lot but he was sure they'll see each other again when he'll come to chase after them. It was going to be great! He was looking forward to it!

~ RZ ~

Finding a weapon's shop was way harder than finding the clothing one and it had nothing to do with the way the town kept moving. He ended up asking at the inn (that he found around the corner for the third time) if they had anything of the sort. They, in fact, didn't but the owner knew an old woman who had a vast collection of swords she collected in her youth and Zoro found himself very reluctant in trying to find her.

"Lemme get you a map, she lives right next to the docks…" Despite knowing that it would be useless (people obviously didn't know how to make good maps) he accepted it and went to find her, but he didn't even get to the docks, getting lost in the forest for a couple of hours. That is until a young fisher named Hook found him and after getting a look at his map he accepted to lead him to the house of the woman.

"You're not from here are you? Why are you going to Baba's home? What are you doing in Cosko Island?" Was that the name of the island? Probably. Hook was way too energetic and questioning for the green haired's liking but he was helping him so he could indulge.

"Looking for swords. I'm a bounty hunter." Since yesterday Zoro didn't say but it was all the same to him and Hook laughed.

"Haha, careful Baba's not selling the merchandise unless you have lots of money. Maa, I didn't know bounty hunters started so young. Unfortunately for you there's not a lot of criminals around here, nothing to rob to be honest, they don't tend to stay long. Most bandits tend to gather around Shell Island or Roumba Island, one has an uncaring Marine presence while the other… Let's say it's not visited very often, since they removed it from maps a couple of years ago, there's rumors about a treasure but I wouldn't bet on it, people tend not to come back from Roumba." He must have been lucky with Jimmy then. He was surprised by his next words but not curious enough to ask about it but he needed to get to Shell Island if Hook was telling the truth.

"How do I get to Shell Island?"

Hook scratched the back of his blond head.

"Funny you asked, my uncle, a merchant, is going there in a couple of days, if he's paid he wouldn't mind taking you along, I mean if Baba hasn't robbed you blind."

.

Three hours later, Zoro weighted the metal in his hand, it took him more than an hour to find the right swords and at least twice the time negotiate. Not because he wanted to hold onto his money but because the old woman witch wanted to buy Wado Ichimonji from him, something that wouldn't happen before she took it from his cold dead hands. The whole ordeal had been annoying and embarrassing but Hook seemed to find it absolutely hilarious. Enough for Zoro having to resist his more violent urges, but he stopped himself because the other guy let him stay at his place until he could leave.

He had only a couple of hundred berrys left meaning he would barely be able to get enough to get either enough food or get his ticket for Shell Island with Hook's uncle. Maybe if he didn't eat he would be able to make it. What's a couple of days without food anyway, he'll be fine with water. All he wanted now was to finally get out of this shitty island.

~ ASL ~

Three days after liberating the island, during one of his visits to the clinic and when Coby expected it the least, Ace woke up and the first thing he asked for was food. Then when Coby lead him to the clinic's kitchen, all he did was inhaling it to an abominable rhythm. At least he wasn't choking on it too much.

"I mished fifteen mealsh!" He explained, his mouth full of bread and meat, wasn't that five meals per day?

Coby would never get used to it, even if he lived with Ace and his brothers for a couple of weeks. The younger boy told him what happened after he passed out after the fight without prompting. Despite Ace not stopping his eating speed, he knew his attention was on him when he told him that Morgan got his axe prosthetic confiscated and was imprisoned at the Marine base.

At least, thought Coby, the older teen seemed to be faring better than the deathly pallor Coby remembered when he fell. Ace looked fine now, even if he couldn't ignore the white band around his head, it twisted Coby's stomach something awful, and it had nothing to do with the way he ate his food this time.

"Also I uh… I wanted to a-apologi- I m-mean thank you for…"

"Sch-ave it." Ace cut him for the first time, looking at him with a more serious expression.

"That'sh what friendsh do." The pink haired didn't miss the small smirk the teen offered him and he felt incredibly happy about it.

"Alright." He answered with a wide smile of his own until he remembered something.

"O-oh and I have to warn you, Sabo and Luffy are going to kidnap you as soon as they see you. I think it has something to do with your Granpa-"

With a couple of muffled curse words Coby immediately wanted to forget, Ace ate even faster if it was possible. The younger boy thought about admonishing him for it but immediately gave up. Ace wouldn't listen to him but maybe he would to his brothers. He left Ace to his eating and went to tell the other ASL brothers that he was awake. He briefly wondered about the grandpa thing, he wasn't sure what it was about, the brothers obviously feared this figure and Coby decided he didn't want to know about it.

~ ASL ~

It was pretty late at night but the moonlight was shining on them clear as day. Ace and Sabo dragged a bag of food twice their size each in the streets. Luffy was holding on the bag of money he and Sabo stole from the Marine base while Ace had been sleeping. Usually Ace would be the one holding it but they swapped when Luffy tried to eat what was inside the bag while they were running. Unlike Ace and his head wound, Luffy and Sabo were practically healed, the blond was still careful about bending forward and the youngest was using his unhurt arm for the money but they were in good shape for sailing already. Ace still had a headache but he wouldn't admit it under torture, the doctor gave him some pills for his head and some narcolepsy pills when found Ace asleep in his food after Coby left. The Doc still cleared him for light exercise, even though the three of them ran away the same evening. Luffy missed it with his lightheadedness but Sabo noticed immediately how the town seemed to have decided they would live with them, that they were too young to sail and would probably have tried to keep them there. The streets were quite empty at this hour but once they got the ship they noticed two figures waiting next to their admittedly small ship.

"Coby?" asked Luffy with a wide smile and the pink haired waved at them. Next to him, Ririka was smiling, she seemed to be holding a bag of goods, Sabo checked, mostly non perishable foods. It didn't seem like they actually needed it but Sabo accepted it with a wide smile.

"It's to thank you again, even if you didn't do it on purpose, you saved our town." She kissed the three boy's foreheads. Both Sabo and Ace brushed brightly while Luffy offered her the brightest smile.

Ririka noticed the money Luffy was carrying but turned a blind eye, she owed them at least that. Coby on the other hand started a small lecture once Luffy told him where he got it.

"We're pirates Coby, you can try to arrest us when you're a Marine, too bad you're not one yet." teased Ace, the pink blinked and scratched the back of his head, he had a point, they were pirates, it wasn't like his lectures had any meaning to them.

"T-then I'll do it! I'll find you when I'm a strong Marine. I will be an Admiral!" Ace and Sabo smiled and embarked the food on the ship, while Luffy faced Coby with a proud smile.

"And I'll wait for you on the top! I'll be King of the Pirates! Shishishi" He laughed and jumped after Ace and Sabo, he almost fell but Sabo caught him by the elbow to prevent his brother from stumbling overboard.

Coby laughed and waved at them, tears pouring on his face, he would miss his first friends a lot.

He kept waving until they were out of sight. He and Ririka stayed a couple more minutes and the sun started rising on the horizon.

"Let's go home." she said and Coby nodded.

~ RZ ~

Hook had immediately caught on Zoro's diet and arranged things so the green haired kid could work on the ship for payment and Zoro accepted the deal. It was just some menial tasks anyway, carrying boxes, cleaning the floor, nothing hard really, and anything could be turned into training if he put his mind into it. (He wasn't asked to clean the floor again after the first time, weirdly enough).

The merchant ship was still quite impressive, he'd never been on one this big, with more than a dozen of sailors leading it.

They've been traveling for two days from Maugre Island when Zoro got a very bad feeling in his gut. He was holding some rope he was told not to let go and he looked around. It didn't look like it had anything to do with the ship itself, or even with the crew.

Zoro watched the ocean, the sea was pretty calm, the wind blowing the ship forward easily so why was he so…

"Thanks Zoro-kun, could you please go help Cook-san with…" His next words were completely silenced with a scream from the crow's nest.

"P-PIRATES! PIRATES ARE FOLLOWING US."

Zoro tensed, his hands reflexively going to his sides but they only caught empty air. The green haired cursed just as the sailors started panicking, while Zoro went to the cabin to get his swords.

When he came back to the main deck he saw the pirate ship, the dark flag with the Jolly Roger was unmistakable, it was a strange variation with a sideways Shark skull instead of a human one. Their ship was also much smaller and faster than the vessel he was in, meaning there was no way to get out of this without a fight. As the first cannonball hit the ship, he slid Wado Ichimonji between his teeth and prepared to fight. What else was there to do anyway?


	7. Chapter 7

**New chapter with my friend's computer! I have a solid idea of what's going to happen and I might even have an ending for this story, so hopefully no eternal hiatus wait!**

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**WhiteyWolf26: **To be perfectly honest I'm not a huge fan of Alvida, but no worries I preparded a solid villain for Zoro to have fun with, and the other ASL Pirates too.  
About Whitebeard you might be right but we'll see how they figure out things with the present stuff. I can't even tell you for sure that Ace will join the Whitebeards (they might remain allies instead). Nothing is for certain so I don't restrain myself with the narrative. Hope you'll like it tho!

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**Ages reminder:**  
**Luffy: 9**  
**Ace: 12**  
**Sabo: 12**  
**Zoro: 11**

* * *

Their first night to the sea was pretty calm. In fact, the second they left the surroundings of Shell Island Luffy and Ace fell asleep in a heap together.

Sabo had started to think that unlike Ace, Luffy didn't actually suffer from narcolepsy, but he'd been following and copying Ace since they met. He wouldn't be surprised if Luffy's "narcolepsy" was just some kind of mirroring mechanism. He saw Ace falling asleep at random times and decided he could do the same, he wouldn't put it past Luffy not to realize that Ace's predicament was an illness and not just a quirk.

Sabo still decided to let them rest, the sea was pretty calm, and the wind was only getting kind of fresh, bringing the end of the summer. He put his trench coat on.

The blond watched the rising sun, then went to add a new entry to the Captain's journal while sitting on the deck. Since technically the three of them were co-captains (as far as they could agree with that), they could all write in it, yet Sabo tended to be the only one to care. Sabo and Ace made sure that Luffy could kind of read and write but he was just too superactive to be able to stay still with a pencil. Ace tried to write something but at his first attempt he got a narcolepsy attack on the journal, smudging the page and his face with ink. And the second time was just a couple of days ago and he just went on a rant about Coby's presence on the ship. Quite entertaining to read but not very useful.

Sabo wrote down their trip and adventure on Shell Island if it could be called that, it was their first real encounter with dangerous forces and yet… Sabo loved it, not as much the fighting part but defeating an evil guy was exhilarating. They freed the town and it gave him an important feeling of satisfaction.

Plus, the villagers went and contributed beating up marines, because they wanted to be freed from Morgan and they ended up saving themselves, even if they needed a bit of help. The relief on Ririka's face, the town's cheering, just writing about it brought a smile in Sabo's face. He hoped they would find more places like this, they might not always be able help but the blond would do his absolute best because freedom was the most important thing he could think about. That and his brothers of course.

Luffy stirred first and Sabo knew Ace would follow soon because there was no way their younger brother would stay silent. Luffy yawned and tugged at Sabo's coat.

"Hey why is the moon orange?" asked Luffy sleepily, not that loud but in between the silent waves it was loud enough.

"It's the sun Luffy." answered Sabo with a exasperated tone, he did try to teach him some physics and astronomy at some point but he just couldn't stay in place and even when he did (usually after some kind of injury), he always had issues with the understanding part. Sabo gave up but he had no problems answering his questions.

"Then why do we still see the stars?" Luffy asked again confused.

"Because the sun is only rising, its light will reach the other side of the sky soon." Sabo put his pen down, it was enough introspection and writing in one go.

He could hear Ace groaning in his sleep and pulled Luffy with him. Ace was still hurt and needed the rest.

"Let's go check our supplies and sort out the food. Separate the easily spoilt food from the rest."

With the mention of food Luffy was already agreeing, with Ririka and Coby's addition to their supplies, he could let his little brother steal some.

Sabo smiled, all in all it was a pretty great day.

~ RZ ~

He should have known it was a shitty day from the start.

A pirate attack was really nothing to scoff at. So much more different from a duel on land. As soon as the first pirates boarded, the sailors took arms to defend their lives. The fighting started and Zoro felt kind of overwhelmed by everything. People fought all over the place and his first target was the first pirate that approached him, a laughing man with a dark beard. But while he was fighting him, another with a wooden leg tried to slice him from behind.

A swordsman shame.

Zoro committed his first murder but it wasn't enough, it wasn't even remotely close to enough, they were completely outnumbered. By the time Zoro defeated five more pirates, he was shot at his side from behind, through and through. By then, most of the sailors he spent the last two days with were either dead or severely injured, there was nothing he could do about that. He wasn't strong enough.

Really the only other sailor from the merchant ship still standing was another light-haired young man, he was fighting only with a bat but while he had some cuts on his arms it looked like he fared good enough. He didn't look older than thirteen.

The pirate captain of the ship, a grey haired man with a long shark-like nose ordered his men to stop and smiled cruelly at them.

"You're both pretty strong kids, one of you can join my crew, the other will die." He could hear the unsaid rhetorical question underneath because the other pirates immediately started yelling for them to kill one another and while Zoro usually appreciated a good fight, there was nothing to enjoy about this situation. The only other survivor was looking at him with terror and determination while the pirates booed at them. Zoro grit his teeth and made his decision. He sheathed his three swords slowly, staring straight at the captain.

"Why would I want to join your shitty crew?"

"Haha kid, funny, if you don't, you die." The green haired kid's eyes flashed with anger, screw that noise. He could almost see some of the men recoiling slightly at his expression.

"Then, it's gonna be on my terms."

Zoro climbed on the fence of the ship and let himself fall overboard, letting the waters claim him.

~ ASL ~

It was the worst day ever, decided Ace pulling on the rope to fold the sails up, following Sabo's indications.

The freckled teen was on watch for the first half of last night, Luffy was supposed to stay for the other half but Ace hadn't been able to find him. The youngest brother was found this morning sleeping in one of the empty barrels because, Ace assumed, he didn't want to do his part of the job. Ace had been pretty pissed, mostly because Luffy had pulled that thing off before. Ace had thought that being threatened not to be given any meat for three days was enough for Luffy to be more responsible, it wasn't.

Then Luffy had been of course insufferable during the day too, asking for meat until Sabo explained him calmly why he was punished. In the end, Ace hadn't been able to sleep either way because an awful storm broke out. Now he was absolutely ready to pass out at any minute, this situation was really the worst.

They never encountered a storm that bad and Sabo looked like he was at the verge of panic. The blond was looking frantically at the sky, trying unsuccessfully to get them out of the storm, Ace knew that without a good navigator they would have lost this battle long ago but he really wished they were better prepared to those situations. If they survived they would learn from the experience and find more cremated, or a better ship.

Not far from the blond, Luffy was holding the wheel desperately, listening to Sabo with an unusual air of seriousness, he had a rope around his hips tied to the main mast, they wouldn't take risks, down here he should be safe enough…

Ace was still quite angry about Luffy's actions the night before, but he also way more worried about his brother's survival. He should have been the one to explain why Luffy's actions were wrong, he shouldn't have hid behind Sabo. Yeah, Ace decided, he would tell him, assuming they managed to get out of this storm.

Ace wiped his forehead where his hair had stuck to his skin, he was also quite cold, open to the elements, the rain soaking him to the bone and the wind just making him colder, he didn't get colds very often but he hoped it wouldn't come to this.

It's been an hour they were fighting it and the storm didn't seem to be stopping at all but from where he was, Ace saw something that lifted his spirits.

"LAND! Sabo! There is an island!" screamed Ace at the top of his lungs, pointing to the direction he saw the island shaped dark spot, relief flooding his voice.

Holding the wheel now, Sabo's face brightened and he said something to Luffy he couldn't hear but the ship started to tilt toward the island, they would be safe, finally.

The island wasn't as small as he thought, it was actually pretty big but they had no time to try and figure out its actual size, they moved on the side, trying not to get swiped against the cliffs. Sabo managed to direct the ship towards a small water cavern, big enough to hide their ship and find cover. The light from outside was soon not enough and Ace brought an oil lamp to check out the place while Sabo got an old still somehow functioning flashlight.

The cavern was actually beautiful, natural light shining on the white stone and crystals from which some water dripped into white stalactites as tall as an adult man.

Luffy, the only one who wasn't completely soaked, removed his hat to dry it up and gawked at the place with awe. The water was slightly calmer here and the ceiling was high, if the water rose too much it wouldn't be too troublesome to leave the cavern. Sabo staggered on land to tie the ship to a particularly large spike, thus stabilising the ship.

"F-finally" mumbled Sabo, mirroring Ace's thoughts and letting himself sit and lean against the rock, enjoying the break. Ace let himself lie on the deck, the waves slowly lulling him to rest. Now they were safe, he had no reason not to surrender to slumber so he did.

~ ASL ~

"What do you mean you don't know where Luffy is?" asked Ace, a panicked edge to his voice.

"I was checking the damage on the Freedom, I thought he was with me the whole time." groaned Sabo, pinching the bridge of his nose. He really didn't see Luffy leave and was regretting it pretty badly. Even more after what happened last night, his younger brother wasn't always aware of the consequences of his actions but when he was he could be very serious. Luffy hadn't eaten any meat all day, as per Ace's orders, but Sabo wondered how long he would resist this decision if he found some meat in the stock room. They hadn't tied up the supplies good enough and some of the food was all over the place, one of the barrels having broken during the storm, they would have to make sure it wouldn't happen again.

"I'm going to go looking for him." Said Ace angrily and Sabo didn't protest, once he was finished he would probably do the same.

"I think the other side of the cavern leads to the island, there's some wind coming from this tunnel." Ace nodded, pipe in hand. Sabo winced internally, praying for Luffy's safety, not from any outside force but from Ace's temper. Oh he'll be fine, he was made of rubber after all, he'd survive Ace, probably.

~ RZ ~

The sight of a kid staring at his meat longingly without making any move to steal it, was pretty interesting. He was so obviously drooling but everytime his hand rose, he slapped it down by his own will.

"You're sure you don't want it?" Asked Zoro, unimpressed. He caught this boar earlier in the day, before the storm broke out and he wasn't sure he would be able to eat all of it. The dark haired kid turned his attention to him, pinching his lips in quite a funny way and nodding.

"Promised I won't eat meat cause I did somethin' bad."

Zoro blinked, so he just refused to eat meat uh? The kid's stomach growls were still echoing in the cavern and the green haired kid sighed, getting some apples from the makeshift bag he made with a piece of fabric and throwing them at the kid. He found them in the forest.

"Eat those then, you said you couldn't eat meat, right?" The other's eyes sparkled at the sight of the red apples and he almost threw himself at them.

Zoro would have laughed if it didn't bring him some awful pain to his injury, instead he smiled, satisfied with himself.

He wasn't all that sure how he survived his swim, all he knew was that two days ago he washed up on the beach of this island, still wounded. Wado Ichimonji was safe and he was just too glad that he didn't lose his treasure.

He needed to leave this dangerous island as soon as possible, and this kid might just be his ticket.

"Hey you're a nice guy, wanna join my crew?" said the kid.

~ NN ~

"Never heard of this name, sorry." She thanked the older woman and let herself fall on a wooden bench. There was really too little that could be told about the Oykot kingdom nowadays. The kingdom wasn't even one anymore, having been toppled down by a group of rebels couple of years ago if she understood correctly. It was currently under the jurisdiction of a mayor of all things, a woman called Sandra but the country was still recovering from war and really vulnerable to pirates.

Basically nothing changed, the young woman thought dryly.

The village she was visiting had been raided twice the past four months and the townspeople were complaining that the militia was utterly useless against them.

At least they were pretty willing to help her, they didn't have much but they were really generous to offer everything they had. She'd been invited to eat with families more than once, leaving her food and money supplies fuller than she expected. They couldn't really resist of the act of the poor girl looking for her family in the ruins.

Is it still an act though? She wondered, her desperation was painfully real, she wanted her family, she wanted her village, she wanted to save her.

Swallowing her tears, she opened her backpack to check the map her sister copied from a book for her, holding it carefully and lovingly. The last item she got from her younger sister before she was taken from her. Her sister vanished for more than a month before she went looking for help.

"Nami… I will find a way to help you." She whispered to the paper, reminding herself why she was doing this and folded the map back in her bag.

Nojiko stood and walked towards the next village, she believed she could do this, she had to.

* * *

**Psyche! It was the sister all along! Gotcha! Or not, haha.****Remember when it was a cute simple story? Yeah, me neither, I lost this thread long ago, ah well too bad, can't help it if the universe is so tragic.****Also I have no knowledge whatsoever about how to direct a ship or what is done during a storm so try not to cringe too much when I make weird navigation stuff happen. It was hard enough to google the right terms in french AND english, haha.****See you next time!**


	8. Chapter 8

**By the way if there's any free beta readers out here for this story out here I'm interested.**

* * *

**Ages reminder:**  
**Luffy: 9**  
**Ace: 12**  
**Sabo: 12**  
**Zoro: 11**  
**Nojiko: 13**

* * *

Sabo was studying the maps, trying to figure out which island they got lost in when he saw the innocent pill bottle, laying there, at the periphery of his vision. He blinked once, twice, then cursed under his breath.

Ace hadn't taken his medication with him, actually he was pretty sure his brother didn't take his pills since at least the night before. It always been Sabo who prompted him to take them, Ace wasn't used to them yet. They were pretty efficient against his cataplexy, reducing it none while his narcolepsy lowered to only once in the last couple of days. But without his medication… Sabo cursed again, frowning on the map and making his decision. He didn't know which island they landed on, they drifted off south-west but despite his precise calculations, there was no island there, the map didn't show anything for some unfathomable reason. That or his calculations were really disrupted by the storm in which case they might be in Cosko, an island with a Marine presence. Wasn't that unlucky?

Ace might be in danger without knowing it and Sabo took the bottle of pills before leaving the ship. The tidying would have to wait until Ace and Luffy were safe and sound and Sabo got the occasion to punch them both to the face. He had no idea how those two could survive without him, really.

~ RZ ~

"No." answered Zoro without missing a beat, he wasn't one hundred percent sure what the kid wanted but he knew he wanted no part in it.

"Why?!" Whined the kid, his mouth still misshapen, full of apples.

"Listen I don't even know your name…" He was cut mid-sentence.

"Hi I'm Luffy, join my crew!" Zoro groaned.

"I'm Zoro and no thanks." He was hoping Luffy's full mouth would keep him from talking but he was very quickly disappointed, dodging the apple pieces the younger kid was sputtering.

"C'mon, I need a firsht mate otherwig' Ashe gonna find one firsht." He mumbled and Zoro sighed, he wasn't even sure what the other was talking about. Was he some kind of adventurer? He asked.

"Oh no, I'm a pirate! I'm going to be the Pirate King!" Then Luffy promptly choked on a piece of apple and Zoro panicked slightly, not expecting that and helped him with a maneuver he was taught back at the dojo.

"Shishi thanksh." Luffy swallowed and Zoro wondered how he managed to swallow one full apple so easily but didn't ask this time.

"I'm a bounty hunter, I can't be a pirate." Added Zoro, leaning his head on his hand, munching on another piece of meat.

"Don't care, you can still be a pirate !" He could see Luffy drooling when he looked at his food but he didn't try to go for the meat this time, even if he would have allowed him.

"No I don't. Do you even have a pirate ship?" Zoro wasn't all that surprised that kid nodded, he must have arrived on this island from somewhere, he was pretty certain there was no other child in the entire island, except for Zoro.

"Yeah and my brothers and I are all captains!" He smiled widely and Zoro blinked, slightly amused. He wondered where his brothers were, they were in for a bad time if they went to the village.

"And you want me to join you guys without asking them?" Luffy shook his head, morphing his young face into a more serious expression.

"No, don't need 'cause you're joining my crew, not Sabo's or Ace's." Oh his name was Ace, not Ashe thought Zoro then made a face at Luffy's affirmation.

"I'm not joining your crew kid."

"Don't call me kid, I'm like the same age as you!" Zoro raised an eyebrow, starting to get amused in spite of his reluctance. He signed him to continue.

"I'm 9!"

"11" smirked Zoro watching Luffy's face redden with embarrassment until he saw Luffy starting to laugh. It was contagious and he barely realized he was chuckling until he did, how did the kid even-

"What's your dream? You're a cool guy, it must be amazing!" said Luffy suddenly and with such seriousness Zoro was once again caught by surprise, he went from a light-hearted subject to one serious one in a second.

"I will be the greatest swordsman." he said slowly, meaning every word.

"Shishishi that's perfect, the King of the Pirates will need the strongest companions!"

"I didn't say I would join your crew." Said Zoro but it was getting more and more difficult to say those words, who the hell was this kid?

~ ASL ~

At the end of second tunnel, he saw the light of a campfire next to the entrance leading outside. The rain had stopped and his young brother was sitting with a stranger who was cooking his meat. Ace must have taken the other entrance then, Sabo sighed.

Surprisingly enough, Luffy wasn't eating any of the meat.

The other kid didn't look much older than himself and to his dismay, he still looked taller than him, well that was unfair. He had the weirdest green hair he'd ever seen, way lighter than Makino's. He was wearing some white shirt and a kind of dark colored scarf around his stomach. But the main thing he noticed were the three swords strapped to his hip, good quality weapons as far as he could tell.

"Sabo!" yelled Luffy happily, seeing his brother coming from the cavern as well. Sabo smiled at him then met the eyes of the stranger. His gaze was serious but he didn't look like he hurt Luffy in any way.

"Hey hey it's Zoro and he's going to be my first mate!" said Luffy with absolute certainty.

"No I won't" grumbled the other with a higher voice than expected, he was young. And his complaint was only half hearted, had Luffy won him over already? He shouldn't be surprised seeing how fast the shy Coby warmed up to him. Sabo just laughed and shrugged.

"I see, please take care of my young brother." He winked at Zoro who just sighed this time, not even trying to defend his claim anymore.

"Have you seen Ace, he went looking for you." He then said to Luffy who frowned and shook his head.

Sabo sighed slightly worried but not as much as when Zoro intervened.

"He shouldn't wander alone, people here are either bandits or lunatics, just saying."

Sabo's worry absolutely spiked.

"What do you mean?"

"You don't know? It's Roumba, the Forbidden Island."

He blinked, it wasn't on the map for sure. He couldn't wait for Ace to get into some kind of trouble, he had to find him now.

"Eh, does that mean that we're going to fight?!" said Luffy, way more excited that he should be, Sabo sighed not even bothering to contradict him while Zoro gave the younger boy a weird glance then continued his explanation.

"Well, I met the people around, something happened years ago and the villagers think their God is mad at them or something and want to find children and offer them to it."

Sabo thought something really bad must have happened if it was to the point of erasing the island from the maps.

"That's why you're hurt?" Asked Luffy innocently and Sabo looked at the green haired who brought his hand to the dark band around his belly.

"How do you even know that" Zoro mumbled to him. Luffy frowned and explained to him that Zoro looked in pain the whole time so he just knew.

"No it wasn't them, that was from pirates when I arrived, that's why I wasn't able to leave. The only boats that come here are from a group of bandits. They call themselves the Wolves but I wasn't able to… Anyway, this island is where they stack their treasure, it's well guarded" The young man looked defeated in Sabo's eyes but he decided to let him deal with his own demons.

"Okay then, you should both stay here" At Sabo's words, Luffy immediately protested.

"You're not going alone! If we lost Ace you're gonna get lost too." Sabo ruffled Luffy's hair reassuringly.

"I'll have Ace with me, and do I have to remind you, your friend here is hurt…"

Zoro suddenly stood up.

"I'm perfectly fine, we're coming with you. I've been there for two days already. And I have a score to settle with the bandits." He frowned and Sabo sighed, Luffy was smiling widely at Sabo, he won.

"Okay I guess. Guide us to the village."

~ ASL ~

Ace was progressively getting more and more pissed.

"LUFFY!" He screamed again to the apparently empty forest. He wasn't quite sure how he ended up in one when he left the cavern but he was still relatively sure how to get back, whenever he found Luffy of course. The young man was still exhausted and the small nap he took earlier only made him more tired and eager to go back to the ship to sleep but he just couldn't bear idea of leaving Luffy behind.

"LUFFY WHERE ARE YOU?!" He yelled again, unknowingly getting the wrong kind of attention.

His path lead to a weirdly empty village, it looked quite disheveled but most doors still seemed in use and everything was locked. The silence was creeping him out, if Luffy was around...

Suddenly, he could feel the usual drowsiness he felt before a narcolepsy attack. He stumbled and resisted it, he wasn't safe, he was in the middle of a…

He fell to the ground, snoring and his pursuers looked at each other with surprise. That was way easier than expected.

~ C ~

The next couple of days were pretty peaceful in Coby's opinion. He was living his best life, so proud and overjoyed to be able to be so close to his idols, they were nice and actually respected the justice they were supposed to represent. He was really relieved and so so eager to become a Marine.

He was questioned along with Ririka about the ASL's disappearance but he easily lied about not knowing. The rumor that they were actual pirates spread for a while (someone must have seen their departure and flag) but nothing was confirmed and they weren't suspected. Meaning he would be able to join the Marines without suspicions, at least until they were recognized as pirates but even then linking him to them would be hopefully less likely. They were nice people, Coby believed in it, they wouldn't get a bounty any time soon, he hoped so, he really did.

Once the pink haired gathered the courage to ask a Marine to teach him how to fight (which admittedly took two whole days until Ririka literally pulled him in front of one) he found himself extremely busy. He might have underestimated how grateful the Marines and the city was in general and the kind Marines accepted his requests. His first lessons were about when to fight, as a civilian kid, he wasn't supposed to pick fights with anyone unless he was absolutely certain there was no authority who could help around. Despite their apparent uselessness, Coby took them very seriously and engraved them to memory. He was then showed how to strengthen himself, the exercices he should do, the sames Marine apprentices were taught. Coby spent entire days working on them, going as far as he could before he fell exhausted.

Once or twice he saw Helmeppo watching him but didn't know what to tell him. The other boy wasn't charged for anything of his father's crimes and was even pitied by some inhabitants having seen what happened at the plaza.

Then one morning, Helmeppo followed him silently and copied his exercices and Coby couldn't help his smile. He knew the kid wasn't completely rotten, he sincerely wanted to be a Marine too and it made the pink haired really glad to have someone who shared that with him.

One morning, an actual Vice Admiral arrived to the island with the loudness and the strength of a thousand elephants. There was no way Coby was able to miss the huge bulky old man.

Vice Admiral Garp was a renown Hero, he was famous for capturing hundreds of pirates including the king of the pirates himself and bringing him to the Marines to get arrested. And yet, he was absolutely nothing like Coby would have imagined. Twenty seconds after being brought to Morgan's old office to be questioned, the door closing behind them, Garp the Hero fell asleep on the office table.

Coby stared, he stared for a whole minute, questioning his short life, why was he even there? He didn't have to wait that long in the end.

_Pop._

"Uh, what was I saying?" The man mumbled, wiping the spit from his chin.

"Oh right! Where did my grandsons go?!" He looked straight at Coby with a much more serious expression, his earlier absentmindness vanishing completely. The young boy blanched but the question barely registered in his mind. Who was he even talking about?

"Hu-uh? S-sorry S-sir, I-I m-mean C-captain… Wh-who?"

"My grandsons!" The Vice Admiral said louder, making Coby's limbs shake uncontrollably. "Luffy, Ace, Sabo! Where are they?"

Then it clicked in Coby's mind.

_Vice-Admiral Garp promised a nice sum and a reputation for the one who would capture his grandsons..._

Oh oh, it was him. He could barely remember what happened back then during the fights and he couldn't remember much with the sheer terror that Morgan's presence brought him until now. That explained why Ace, Sabo and Luffy were such in a hurry to leave the island, their grandpa was after them. Their grandpa, the Vice admiral Garp, grandpa.

Coby's head span and he stared at the man again, now understanding the question but being unable to open his mouth and answer. They were his friends, if he told the man… He would go after them. He was one of the strongest marines he would definitely catch… Luffy, Ace Sabo, could he really betray them?

"I-I c-cannot say, S-sir" He said lowly, almost whimpering, closing his eyes to keep himself from regretting it. The silence filled the room.

"You can't say?" Asked a colder voice and Coby gulped and shook his head. Another silence filled the room, the Vice Admiral's intent so thick Coby could feel it and he didn't dare breathing anymore. Then it stopped and the Vice Admiral's next words surprised him.

"I heard you wanna be a Marine." Coby nodded with his head. "If you tell me where they are I'll pull some strings and make sure you get into a nice position in a couple of years. What d'ya think?"

Coby bit his lip, it was… it was what he always dreamed of. He wiped some snot from his nose.

_I will be the King of the Pirates! - That's for insulting Coby's dream! - What about this, me and my brothers take you to the next island?_

Coby's eyes filled with tears and lowered his head. Luffy, Ace, Sabo...

"I-I a-apologize, I-I c-can't." They're my friends he thought but didn't say, they were his first friends and he couldn't bear the idea of betraying them so easily. Suddenly Coby heard voices outside the room, a kids voice, it was Helmeppo, he was calling for him.

"I guess I don't have a choice then. You win kid. Bwahahahaha…"

Coby turned his attention back to the laughing man, Garp was way closer to him than he expected.

"Hahaha, alright, you're coming with me."

"Huh?"

He caught Coby by the back of the shirt, like a lost kitten and walked out of the room. Helmeppo was there and he paled seeing the situation his friend was in. As Garp walked out and the guards attention was away from him, the blond followed them.

* * *

**I never planned such a long section on Coby's life, I don't know how it happened but I might have just missed him a lot hah.**

**Serious question here. Are you guys actually interested in Coby and Garp's povs? I mean they have a purpose but they are pretty isolated from the main plot. I could just as well make a summary when they actually become relevant to the ASL Pirates or do I continue to tell their shenanigans as they search for the kids? What do you think?**

**Review are the fuel that make this story happen.**

**See ya!**


	9. Chapter 9

**Hey, update the picture with my own art. **

**Without an answer to my question I guess whatever happens will happen.**

**Thanks for the people who still review, even if it's one sentence long, it means a lot, ****here's the chapter.**

* * *

**Ages reminder:**  
**Luffy: 9**  
**Ace: 12**  
**Sabo: 12**  
**Zoro: 11**  
**Nojiko: 13**  
**Coby: 8**

* * *

Monkey D. Garp wasn't as unhappy as he should be. While he had found a lead in the kid called Coby this one refused to tell him anything. The older Vice Admiral was frustrated by his refusal at first and tempted to beat the answer out of him (the man wasn't the most subtle). But he heard the kid's dream was to become Marine, in fact he saw him training the same morning he arrived and being his grandsons's "friend" as the witnesses had stated, Garp got intrigued.

So he decided he would test him. As much as he wanted to catch the brats, they were family and he wanted the best for them. It wouldn't do for him to beat the crap out of their first (to his knowledge) friend. Then if Coby turned out rotten and ratted them out he wouldn't be considered his kids friend anymore, right? And he would be able to guiltlessly able to beat him up for being a little traitor and send him to Sakazuki to become his cabin boy. He knew the old dog hated opportunists, it would be perfect.

Yeah, decided the old man, he wouldn't allow his brats to have a poor minded fool as a friend.

Except for the fact that the kid was an actual honest brat who was ready to put his dream aside for his friends. And Garp could read him easily, Coby was clearly tempted by his offer for an easy start, he felt the potential in his unchangeable will. So Garp did the first thing that came to his mind and just decided to take the kid with him, to hell with consequences. Oh yes Bogard would be giving crap about his impulses again but the pink kid could even become an interesting subordinate later on if he could deal with his idea of training. Garp's face split into a very satisfied smile as he carried the brat to his ship. He had no more time to lose, he would find his little rascals as soon as possible.

~ ASL ~

"We've passed this tree four times." Said Sabo in a deadpan tone.

At first he believed the other kid would be able to guide him to the village but now, not only they didn't find the village, they were also completely lost.

"It was here, the path moved." Answered Zoro with the same bored voice and Sabo just got enough of that and punched the green haired at the top of his head.

"No it didn't!"

Luffy was, of course, laughing his ass off, rolling on the ground.

"Urgh what the fu-"

"We need to find Ace and this guy is obviously not helping." Sabo pulled Luffy by his collar to lead him away but his younger brother resisted.

"Zoro is my first mate! He's coming with us, he needs to get off this island too!" The blond stared at his brother's pleading dark eyes and sighed.

"He can come but he's not getting us lost again. You stay behind!" He said towards the young swordsman. This one frowned and his hands itched towards his swords, but he was hesitating for long enough for someone else to interfere.

"What are kids doing here? Hey it's the one that attacked Rug!" They looked at Zoro and immediately got their own swords out ready to fight.

Zoro frowned, those were apparently bandits and Sabo assumed the green haired annoyance knew them.

After a few seconds of hesitation, Sabo got ready to take both of them.

"Oni-giri!" Said a young voice and one of the bandits was suddenly bleeding on the floor. Alright maybe Luffy's chosen future first mate wasn't completely useless. Sabo jumped on the second guy who's attention was taken by the young swordsman and whacked him on the head with his metal pipe before he could react.

He frowned at the sight of blood on the green haired boy side, his makeshift scarf bandage not holding anymore and his blood was dripping to the floor.

"Damn, it opened again." Zoro removed his scarf, he did mention he had been wounded before by pirates. Alright Sabo decided, good fighter or not, Zoro was also an idiot.

"Gum gum no pistol!" Sabo turned around and saw another bandit they didn't notice getting punched to the face by Luffy who smiled playfully when the man flew and hit a tree and fell to the ground, unconscious. Yeah Luffy's strength was definitely going to become something at some point, the blond better not let him surpass him.

"Yeah I got him! Hey Sabo let's find the bandit's home and they can tell us where the village is!"

His blond brother blinked and eventually agreed, they were not going anywhere like this. If they didn't even know where they were they wouldn't find the village.

"They were coming from this direction. Let's go." Said Sabo and the three boys went to find the bandit base.

~ DD ~

He wasn't staying, he was done hearing them yell at eachother, day after day. He wished one of them would leave so he could have some peace. His mother slapped him for suggesting that and he just felt so tired and angry.

The young man slid his notebook to his pocket and checked the backpack he prepared haphazardly. His parents hadn't even noticed the missing money or food. He would be better on his own. He didn't want to do anything with them anymore. He decided he would leave the island and find an Academy for his studies. As the light blue haired boy climbed out of the window, his dream of becoming a doctor didn't feel so far away anymore.

~ ASL ~

Ace woke up in an unpleasant haze, he was tied up and carried on someone's shoulder like a sack of potatoes. His head was aching and the young man realized he must have had a narcolepsy attack. Of course, just his luck, he would be immediately scooped up by some random strangers. He hoped Luffy wasn't in a similar situation, thus without waiting another second, he struggled to escape.

As he kicked the one carrying him to the face, he fell on the grass, he was back in the forest and surrounded by three weird guys. They were wearing some mining uniforms and covered in soot. The weird part was their faces, all of them had empty bloodshot eyes and creepy smiles.

"Who are you?! What do you want?" Asked Ace, finding his balance to stand on his feet.

Depending on the answer he was ready to bolt out of here, actually he wouldn't even need to as his ties were already weakened by his fall.

"You're important for the God of Depths, he's the protector of this island and he wants a child. Please don't resist, we won't hurt you."

Like hell he was believing that from the guys who tied him up. Finally getting his hands free, he took a fighting stance. Those people were weak and emaciated, he was pretty sure he could kick their asses. One of them approached him to grab at him, he swung his arm and punched him in the face. Ace was aware that is strength was superior to even most adults and they didn't expect a child to be that strong. The young man took pleasure in proving them wrong. Without missing a beat he launched himself at a second villager who got kicked in the face. He almost broke into a satisfied smile but before he even touched the floor, a leg out of nowhere kicked the young man at the stomach. A blow much stronger than any he ever remember receiving, maybe save for Garp's fists of love.

Ace fell on the floor and rolled out of the way of the next blow. He didn't hear this man coming but immediately he knew that this one was on another level. He was tall and quite muscular, steadier and heavier than any of the villagers he got caught by. His hair was cut really short and his expression extremely bored even as he was dealing with Ace so effortlessly.

"So you're the kid causing a ruckus on my island, I heard you had swords, where are they now?" The man asked and Ace had absolutely no idea what this guy was talking about. The freckled boy still got no time to answer as he had to dodge a punch to the face. As he tried to ripost with a kick to the man's chest he failed to notice the hand grabbing his other leg until it was too late, stopping him with ease as he dangled from the tall man's hold. Ace got struck to the face, making him see stars until a voice he didn't recognize intervened.

"Hey Boss Hamrock wait, it's not the sword kid I think it's one of the mystery grandsons of Garp. He looks like the picture! He's worth five million!" Ace froze then immediately he started to trash like the devil himself was after him, which from his point of view, was the case. Oh hell no he wasn't letting this guy get him to his grandfather.

"Really?" Hamrock didn't even seem fazed by Ace's attempts to kick his face and the freckled boy was pretty frustrated. The man caught him by his hair and smiled for the first time, showing his dark ugly teeth, not a very pleasant expression.

"Then, where are your brothers? You're not here alone, are you?"

Ace frowned, trying to get out of the man's hold but was unsuccessful. He would not give his brothers out, no way. He would rather die first.

~ RZ ~

Zoro watched the man with apprehension, the pain of his bleeding wound pushed to the background.

When he arrived on this island, he was unlucky. Hungry, dehydrated, hurt and exhausted, he fought five bandits and… he was defeated. For the first time since Kuina, he lost a fight and he couldn't forgive himself for running away. Right here and now though he felt much better and he got a chance for redemption. There was a dozen of bandits in their base and he was kicking their ass.

Sure the rubber kid was helping, taking off his share of bandits and covering his back.

Luffy wasn't a bad fighter, stronger physically than almost anyone he met before. His stretching limbs able to take down five bandits at once. He wondered how strong his blond brother was but he had no idea where the other was. Zoro wished to try his strength against Sabo at some point but the teen had barely looked at him, absolutely dead focused on his objective to find 'Ace'. This blond wasn't even using a sword but this metal pipe did look absolutely deadly in his hands.

Zoro slashed at another opponent, slowly getting his pride back as he defeated more men. He would not lose again.

~ ASL ~

Sabo ignored the sounds of fighting outside the tent and focused his attention on the documents at hand. The emergency of the possibility of Ace being in danger faded in the background. Sabo needed to know what was going on to be able to solve their problem. If he could find a map it would be perfect.

When they entered the bandit base, there was surprisingly so little resistance it was laughable. A lot of guards but really weak bandits and as Zoro and Luffy enjoyed themselves, Sabo wondered where were the strong ones in such an important place, it was suspicious.

The documents were supposed to clear it out for him but they only brought more questions.

The bandits on this island were not simply some low grade criminals making raids on islands and bringing their treasure here. They were part of an organisation, one that had plans and money, it was only mentioned as the Ties and Sabo had no idea what to do with all this information but still memorized it.

From a letter asking for more meat to feed the "God" he deduced that they tamed some kind of sea king so the crazy villagers would get something for them. There was also something about mushrooms but he wasn't all that sure what that was for.

But from what he could gather with the amount of money received by the Ties, it was pretty big. More than ten million berrys just for Roumba, the forbidden island, not only that but he could find traces that this island's isolation might have been orchestrated by this same organisation. Official governmental documents, maybe faked and from the accounts, some dozen millions berrys were send monthly to a Marine Captain called Tuggings. It extended on so many years he must be rich right now. It was absolutely crazy and the blond teen felt sick. He still couldn't stop, he needed to know why. Was it all for money? If they invested so much Sabo assumed this island must be really lucrative so how? More questions than answers. Unfortunately for him the documents were coded too, whatever resource the villagers were getting was called 'sugar' but he was quite certain it couldn't be the food. It didn't look like an island with plantations…

He was interrupted from the task at hand, yeah right, they still needed to find Ace. Sabo shoved some of the documents inside his satchel to read later.

"Hey Sabo!" Luffy called him a second time, entering the tent with a heavy bag on his back. "We found a treasure!"

Looking at what was inside the bag, Sabo's mouth fell open.

Shiny white stones, not all were carved but from his life as a Outlook noble Sabo couldn't not recognize them. Those were actual diamonds, mystery solved.

~ NN ~

She stared at the broken wood sadly. Nojiko knew she should have left a week ago, there was nothing for her here, she missed everyone, she missed Kokoyashi, the grove, Genzo and most of all, her sister. But she couldn't go home empty handed, coming home and ending up in the Mikan grove, alone, hoping her sister wasn't dead yet. The blue haired girl wiped her eyes, and sat down next to the remains of her small ship. Yesterday a group of bandits attacked the docks, her ship was one of the unfortunate victims. There was nothing much in it fortunately, she always kept her precious items with herself but… How was she supposed to go home now?

"Are you alright?" asked a smooth female voice and Nojiko jumped in surprise. It was a woman with yellow sunglasses, she was purple haired and looked like she was in her forties. Nojiko couldn't pretend she was very trusting in general but she really had nothing to lose.

"My ship is gone, I can't go home." She just mumbled.

"You're pretty young to be travelling alone" The woman answered, sitting next to her.

The young teen noticed how nice she looked, her hair tied an intricate bun, her perfume smelt expensive, her jewelry glistened in the evening sun and even her dark top hat was decorated with pearls. She looked rich and Nojiko wondered how she attracted this woman's attention.

"It's a nice view isn't it?" She probably referred to the white walls in the horizon, the ones that used to protect the kingdom until it expanded, the Oykot ki- country, it was a country now and she nodded. She couldn't remember much of her childhood before she found Nami and met Bellemere but the white walls felt somehow very familiar.

"I heard this country used to be your home and you came here looking for family, am I wrong?" the woman asked, in the same casual tone and Nojiko got a bad in her gut, how did she know? She did talk to some people but she never met this woman before. The purple haired woman seemed to have noticed her apprehension and she tilted her hat so it partially hid her face while she whispered.

"I truly am sorry."

Nojiko quickly stood, and looked around her, noticing for the first time the five of guards surrounding them, pointing their spears at her, she had nowhere to go.

"Who are you?" Nojiko asked in a choked up voice, feeling her panic rising.

"Mayor Sandra, nice to meet you." The woman stood, smiling gently at her but Nojiko didn't feel safe. She swallowed hard.

"Would you mind following us for a bit? We do not wish to hurt you." her smooth voice said but it sounded like an order Nojiko couldn't say no to. So she just managed to answer in a small voice.

"Sure."

* * *

**Please review**

**See you next time**


	10. Chapter 10

**Heya finally the new chapter! Got a job now and it's hell, I'll post when I can, I really love this story and I'll try to keep it up as much as I can!**

* * *

**Ages reminder:  
****Luffy: 9  
****Ace: 12  
****Sabo: 12  
****Zoro: 11  
****Nojiko: 13  
****Coby: 8**

* * *

~ DD ~

The first thing the young man did when he left home was to hide his face with a dark mask he made himself. The captain merchant that hired him laughed at his face when he asked to be taken in, not only at his mask but also saying he didn't look like he was seventeen. In the end accepted him anyway. He was grateful. The merchant captain was an overweight red haired man who smelled like alcohol but at least he was joyful and who joked with his crew a lot, so he didn't regret his decision.

The ship departed a day ago and he was cleaning the main deck with two older boys. They were pretty rude if he was honest and he pretty much hated them but he knew better than fighting them. The teen didn't doubt that he would be thrown overboard if he started trouble and no matter how well he could swim he didn't feel like taking a bath in the frigid waters.

The reason he chose this ship in particular wasn't all that complicated. He heard that the Oykot island had the best Medical Academy of East Blue. He would work hard and become a great doctor, it was a promise he made to himself.

~ ASL ~

Things weren't looking up in Ace's life right now.

"Screw you!" Ace spat some build up blood to Hamrock's face, still struggling to escape to no avail. The dark haired man looked unhappy for a second and then without warning he simply twisted his ankle with a turn of the wrist to punish the gesture. Ace yelped from pain and surprise but then bit his lip to remain silent. It hurt but it wasn't overwhelming. He got punched twice more but he didn't say another word. He really wished he had his pipe, he was pretty sure that he would have been able to kick his ass with the weapon.

"Boss Boss!" Yelled a panicked man, Ace didn't bother looking at him, mostly because the world span too fast.

"Someone attacked the base! It's on fire! We found Jerry and Flow unconscious and they told us a bunch of kids…"

Aces blood ran cold and he raised his head. Hamrock was ignoring him now and stood up, taller than all his men. Ace knew he was really strong but cursed his own incompetence, if he was able to beat this guy, Sabo and Luffy wouldn't be at risk now. If only he was strong enough...

"Must be his brothers but we're on a tight schedule. The first ship is ready, Goug, get him to the meeting point. If I'm not here in an hour you can just go, I'll take the second ship, with the rest of the cargo."

"Yes Boss!"

Ace was pulled by his shirt and hollered on someone's back. His wrists were tied from the beginning of the interrogation and unlike the villagers those guys knew what they were doing, he wouldn't be able to escape that easily. He cursed himself and hoped Luffy and Sabo would be alright.

~ DD ~

He watched as the joyful Captain and a couple of men boarded the lifeboat to save their hides from the sinking ship. The storm was really unlucky and as the ship got split in half after some powerful wave, there was nothing much to do to save their trip.

One of his annoying young camarades tried to ask them to board as well but after he was refused twice, he was rewarded with a hit to his temple. The young man fell unmoving to the floor and the blue haired boy didn't try his turn. He wanted to check on the young man, he was slightly older than him and he made fun of his mask earlier the same day but he couldn't let him just die. He tried to reach him but the side of the ship he was in twisted and he lost his balance. The teen could only watch helplessly as a wave took the teen overboard. He couldn't do anything but stare with horror.

The half of the ship he was in was sinking alarmingly fast but he found an empty barrel to float with and just let himself go.

.

Hours later, the young man was laying on a beach, he found land, alive but alone. Out of spite he hoped the Captain and his men died but he didn't really believe in those thoughts. They wanted to survive as bad as him, he couldn't really fault them for trying their best.

The worst part from his point of view was probably that he lost all his parent's money, he wouldn't be able to pay for his studies, he wanted to cry but instead investigated this deserted sandy island. He would need to save all the water he had if he didn't want to die from dehydration. He could find the money later, for now he just needed to survive.

~ ASL ~

"We're done here." Sabo said with a contemplative voice and Luffy thought he was a bit angry. He could guess that from the nice bump he was now sporting on his scalp.

From what his brother explained to him, the villagers were stuck here working for these bandits and the rubber boy thought it was unfair, and now everything was on fire, thus the bump.

He wasn't even sure how that happened, he was never allowed to play with fire before, Ace said that the smell of burnt rubber was the worst. But now Luffy didn't regret it much, not only he found some great treasure, but he also destroyed the bandit's lair.

"The fire will get their attention, we should go to the village now." Mumbled his brother, he was carrying the treasure on his back.

"Yeah let's find Ace!" Yelled Luffy happily and turned to Zoro. His first mate was holding a very pale bandit by the rope he was tied to. The green teen was still hurt but looked better than before, happier. And when Luffy had tasked him with catching a bandit to find the village, the young swordsman had taken his job very seriously. Luffy wanted to hug him… though it was probably the wrong moment, he would do that later.

They walked in the forest, the bandit in the front, leading them. The island must have been smaller than Luffy thought because after a couple of minutes only, they were already at the village. With a swift move of Zoro's swords, the rope was cut and the bandit ran away, as promised. Sabo looked like he wanted to say something and Luffy decided it wasn't important.

"AAAACEEE!" He screamed to the empty village, they ran for a couple of minutes and suddenly lots of people attacked them. They didn't look like bandits and they fell way easier under his fists. Like for Coby, Luffy held back, he didn't want to hurt them too bad.

"Have you seen another kid? Around my age, dark hair, freckles." Sabo pulled one of their aggressors, or more like victims, by the collar.

"The God of the Depths will avenge-…" said a croaking voice and Sabo shook him, he shook him hard.

"Where is my brother?" Sabo had an odd edge to his voice, he sounded mad, Luffy had never seen him so angry and while he trusted Ace would be fine, seeing his brother so tense brought worry to the younger captain.

"Hey Captain" Said Zoro, while Sabo kept asking about Ace, "You should see this." He pointed something on the floor, a couple of meters from them.

It was a shoe, one of Ace's sandals, and next to it a spot of red. Luffy didn't know how to feel, Ace would be fine, he was strong. Stronger than any of them, he was… Luffy took the sandal, holding it tight.

"...t-they took him to the docks. T-they were s-supposed to leave y-yesterday but the s-storm…"

"Where are the docks?" Sabo's voice was cold, Luffy felt cold too.

"O-over there." Pointed the man and Sabo let him go, his gaze crossed Luffy's and he froze.

"Luffy." He said with a confident voice and a slight smile.

"Lets go get Ace back." A smile crept on Luffy's face as well.

"Yeah!"

They ran to the docks as fast as they could but there was only one ship to be seen with no Ace in sight. But worse, there was a lot of bandits loading this ship, and they saw them immediately.

Luffy got ready to fight, his arm already swinging for momentum. The bandits were numerous but not much better than the fry from the base.

"Gum gum no Whip!"

The guy that Sabo was fighting though, looked way stronger, but he trusted his brother and kept any bandits from getting any close to them.

Luffy didn't really see his brother getting punched hard but he heard him fall behind him. He walked to stand next to his brother, he was bleeding from his nose and glaring at the man.

"Where is my brother?" Asked the blond and Luffy noticed that Zoro got the memo as well and stood on Luffy's right. It reassured Luffy to know that his first mate was at his side, Zoro was really cool and awesome.

"Haha he's already gone to the sea but no worries, you guys are joining him soon. But first, which ones of you are Garp's grandsons?"

Luffy froze in instinctive fear, yeah he didn't want to face his grandpa, really really not but before he had the time to process what was going on, Sabo pulled at his arm and Zoro's and started running to the forest, pointing a direction.

"Ace is a priority! Luffy! As soon as you can make a Slingshot! To the ship!" Luffy's mouth opened in surprise while Zoro looked at both of them without understanding. Luffy frowned unhappily, he wanted to fight, to prove he was strong enough to save Ace. But at the blond's expression he decided to listen and question him later. Sabo always made better plans anyway.

Despite the adults pursuing them they were still really fast on their feet and while they didn't lose the men, they had enough margin to attempt the move.

They hadn't exactly practiced it before. The three brothers talked about it after what happened on the Humming Isles. After seeing Luffy use it to get away, they thought about doing it together. A solution for a quick and efficient escape from any "too much to handle" authorities that tried to pursue them. Luffy smiled excitedly and once he found a nice spot, he caught two well placed branches and pulled back, suddenly stretching his arms at the opposite side to where they needed to go. Meanwhile bandits were slowly catching up, he better be fast.

"Get ready! It's going be quick." if Luffy was more perceptive (or perceptive at all) he would hear the slight hint of apprehension in his voice.

Sabo wrapped his arm around the treasure to steady it and with his free hand pulled on Zoro's arm to set him in front of Luffy. With a sigh, Sabo stood next to the confused crewmate. Zoro turned to the arriving bandits, he wasn't really attentive to what his new Captain was doing, otherwise he would have been way more afraid for his life.

"Gum gum no…"

It happened without any more warning and as he let go, Luffy pulled his legs around his crewmates to make sure they wouldn't get away and they literally flew.

"...SLINGSHOT!

Behind them the bandits just stared in surprise.

"What the f-"

"WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? GO CATCH THEM!" Yelled Hamrock and his underlings scammed to obey.

~ NN ~

Nojiko's feeling of unease never stopped growing since they left the docks but there was nothing to be done. The guards followed her closely and Sandra was walking right next to her, giving the illusion to be on her side. Nojiko sighed, she wondered why she was in trouble, did one of the families that housed her complain about her or something? Did she do something wrong?

"Do you know about the war, the one that ended twelve years go?" Nojiko jumped slightly and nodded. She didn't really feel like talking, thankfully the older woman had that covered.

"The king Clemence was a great ruler, he finished what his father started and conquered this whole island. Took him many years but he became the Emperor of the Oykot Kingdom. And honestly it would have been fine if after a couple of years of reign, he didn't start taking the people who interested him as slaves. The army was already full of them, full of slave-soldiers that lost the war and as he was so successful, people started to believe that he was some kind of God."

Nojiko looked up at the woman who was giving her a particularly cold stare. Her voice was still calm and Nojiko guessed that as the new ruler she probably had no love for the old regime. No one told her this part of the story, mostly the grand lines and not so bluntly.

"There are a lot of legends surrounding this place but one in particular might interest you."

She still had no idea what it had to do with her words.

"Have you ever wondered why families accepted to help you so gracefully? Did you believe it was from the goodness of their hearts?" Nojiko gulped, suddenly feeling threatened by her cooling voice.

"Legends say that blue hair is a sign of good luck and grants wishes. But it's not any blue color, it's a very particular shade, the pale shade of sky reflected on the sea."

Nojiko's eyes widened, she had been surprised by the generosity of the people but she didn't know anything of the sort, it did explain the reverence and the politeness of the families. Sandra continued.

"They say blue is the color of the Gods, the colors of the rulers. Do you understand what I'm trying to say?"

They were in front of the Palace, the white building was imposing but less than she expected. Her head was spinning, it was smaller and a tower was missing, she felt sick, she didn't like the idea of going there. Sandra put her hand on Nojiko's shoulder and lead her forwards gently, talking in a lower, kinder voice.

"I really wished you wouldn't stay that long, that you'd leave before it was too late. You've been recognized and we can't keep you free, I apologize, Princess."

Nojiko couldn't move, she couldn't think. She recalled the royal family had been killed, that's why she wasn't able to find any family… because they were all gone.

~ ASL ~

Sabo knew when to give up, he knew this fight wasn't worth it, Ace was more important. He always believed in Ace's strength, and if Ace lost...

He was really good at pretending that it was alright for Luffy's sake but he also knew he couldn't lie too long. Luffy would read him given time and he wouldn't like what he would see.

Ace was hurt, more than hurt maybe, probably, the man Sabo fought was really strong and he didn't miss the shine of cruelty in his eyes. If the tall adult wanted something, he would get it and he got Ace.

"Open the sails, the caverns won't hold them that long, we need to go!"

Luffy sprung to unfurl the sails and Sabo directed the swordsman to retrieve the anchor as he himself took care of the half-done mooring he did earlier the same day. How fast did everything go to hell? Sabo was angry but in control, the bandits wouldn't catch up to them and they would be able to go look for Ace.


	11. Chapter 11

**Finally, I was able to post this, hope you'll like it!**

* * *

**Ages reminder:  
****Luffy: 9  
****Ace: 12  
****Sabo: 12  
****Zoro: 11  
****Nojiko: 13  
****Coby: 8**

* * *

~ ASL ~

Ace was on the ship for no more than ten minutes, he had tried to run away four times but his head was spinning and his ankle was giving him trouble. Now he couldn't even see the island anymore and wouldn't be able to swim back. A brown haired man was keeping an eye on him and Ace let his hair cover his face. He couldn't escape immediately, he had no idea where they were going and was guarded heavily. At least Luffy and Sabo weren't with him, they would be fine, they would escape and find him. If he wasn't given to Garp first.

A nap actually sounded pretty good, less chances of screwing up a future escape plan with narcolepsy. He closed his eyes and allowed himself to rest.

.

Ace waited nighttime, or more precisely as the sun dawned in the horizon, he was forcefully pushed into the storage room and locked in there for the night. As he was woken up by the rough treatment anyway, he immediately started to look for anything that could help with the ropes holding his wrists tightly. In fact he was feeling pretty awful despite his nap, not only he was still in pain but he also was really hungry.

The room was pretty dark but he still tried to pry a couple of barrels open to find anything to eat. After a couple minutes unfortunately he found nothing and his stomach only growled louder.

The first barrel he pushed to the ground sloshed loudly meaning there was only water or rhum inside. The second one though did feel way more solid. He blindly attempted to pry it open with his hands behind his back but the feeling from his fingers was almost gone so he just kicked at it with his healthy foot until the wood finally broke. Unfortunately it contained nothing interesting, just some kind of grey powder. Before he abandoned it completely he still checked if it wasn't some kind of food, it smelled fiery, like something burnt.

Ace blinked, it was gunpowder! Why the hell those stupid bandits would leave him alone with the stock of gunpowder?! He shook his head and thought about it seriously.

The young man wasn't able to find anything sharp enough to cut his ties on but if he managed to burn them off…

Twenty minutes of rubbing the ropes together finally managed to get enough heat for a sparkle, it was all that was needed to burn the ropes off. It hurt a lot but it was worth the freedom.

A small smile spread on Ace's lips, it's showtime, but first he would check the rest of the barrels for food.

~ RZ ~

"You lied…" mumbled Luffy.

Zoro wasn't entirely sure what was going on anymore. They escaped, now back in the open sea going straight to the direction Sabo was leading them to. And yet, Luffy, his captain, looked upset. If Zoro was honest, the kid's fury wasn't that impressive, he was still a scrawny kid and his expression was almost adorable if Zoro had any interest in cute things. No what was impressive was Sabo's reaction to his anger.

The green haired boy didn't miss the way the older brother had fought the adult with his pipe, from the first seconds of the fight he noticed that the man was nothing to scoff at and yet the blond guy didn't hesitate, swinging his weapon like it was a prolongation of his arm, his hits so very close from the man's face. Sabo was a warrior and Zoro itched to fight him, when the situation wasn't so serious. And yet this warrior was folding in front of Luffy, apologizing for his actions without hesitation. From what he understood Sabo lied about something and his new captain noticed as soon as they were out of sights from the island.

"I know Luffy, I'm sorry but we needed to get out of there as soon as possible. We wouldn't have won!" Sabo insisted.

"You can't know that! We're strong! If we fought they would've told us where Ace was going!" Luffy answered and Zoro couldn't help but appreciate the philosophy, fight without regrets, hit first then ask questions.

"We had no time for that! I bet Ace already freed himself and is waiting for us out there! Do you want to make him wait?"

Luffy made a frustrated sound and turned away, going inside the cabin. Zoro glanced briefly at the blond and followed Luffy. He was looking inside the barrels and looking for food, he discarded the meat and Zoro couldn't help but ask.

"Why do you avoid the meat? You don't like it?" Luffy's hand froze for a second before it closed on some bread, he sat down and munched on it. Slowly his angry expression subsided.

"I promised Ace I wouldn't eat meat for three days. Cause of me, he didn't sleep enough and now he's gone." His expression turned a bit sad for a second before his determination overrode it.

"We're gonna find him! And we'll eat all the meat together!"

"Sounds good, Captain." said Zoro. A smile blossomed on the young captain's face and he smiled gratefully at Zoro.

"I'm g-hoa hugh ya" Zoro blinked, what did he say? He got his answer when Luffy jumped on Zoro, tackling him into a hug, leaving bread crumbs all over his second mate.

The swordsman wanted to push him away by reflex but restrained himself when Luffy beamed at him and Zoro gave up at understanding his thoughts process and let captain do as he pleased, it wasn't all that bad.

~ ASL ~

Another explosion shook the ship and Ace almost fell overboard from the small boat. He really thought he had more time! A piece of dried meat between his teeth, he finished landing the boat in the water with a splash. He should have made the gunpowder trail longer, better luck next time he thought, and started rowing fast. He didn't want any of the bandits to be able to catch up to him, their ship was ruined but hey, they could still swim.

The reflection of the fire looked pretty nice from where he was, like a single candle in the night. He'd have to tell everything about it to Luffy and Sabo, they wouldn't believe it! He missed them.

Ace honestly didn't think the bandit's ship was completely ruined but their attention was all on the fire he created, it didn't look like they even noticed his departure and he was free again. On a very small fishing boat with barely enough food for survival. And he forgot the water too, which sucked a lot.

After a couple of hours, the ocean got pretty agitated and he was hoping to reach land, any land before the boat got turned over. He wasn't a very good navigator despite Sabo's tips and Ace wasn't all that sure he would be able to swim with his ankle. He had no idea how to even set it right, he decided he would figure it out as soon as he was out of the storm.

Ace believed his brothers were alright, he trusted Sabo with Luffy's safety and all he needed was to find them… Or them finding him he wasn't all that picky in the end.

~ DD ~

He kept his eyes closed, feeling the rain against his body and face. The rain had saved him, really. The desert island was unsurprisingly not very hospitable and he was dying of thirst before the miracle happened. He'd been living here for the past two days, kind of surviving out of fishes he managed to catch and the leftovers of water from the previous rain session. He had filled two wine bottles he found soon after the wreckage and he shut them with some pieces of wood so it didn't evaporate and buried them next to what used to be a tree before it was hollowed out. The tree was pretty tall and gave a nice shadow not that far from the sea, it was his main cover from the sun. Those two bottles were now empty and he felt dehydrated once again, at least until now.

The water not only soothed his sunburned skin but would also hopefully replendish his stocks of water. It was really lucky that storms were a recurrent thing in this season, he still hoped to find a ship to get to civilisation.

He used a cleaned and emptied piece of wood to collect the water, it would be a bit salty but better than nothing. A couple of hours passed and all his containers were full. The young man felt quite disappointed that he didn't have more bottles. The rain didn't stop for hours and even when it did, the sky was cloudier, the blue-haired teen decided it was time to fish. As he used his makeshift fishing pole he noticed something else on the beach. It was a small boat but as he approached he immediately noticed the problem, it was broken, a think of it missing. There was also someone inside, a kid not much older than himself, he was unconscious but seemed to be breathing.

The teen poked at the other with his fishing pole but the guy didn't budge. He scratched his neck and decided to get the guy to the tree in case it rained again. He didn't look too good and he did want to become a doctor didn't he? And this guy would be a perfect first patient! He was also extremely lonely and was kind of desperate for company, how lucky was he to find someone so fast!

He jumped a bit when he heard a weird sound, did the kid just snore?

~ MDG ~

The Helmeppo kid wasn't an issue Garp allowed himself to think too hard on. The kid asked to follow them and he guessed the young man was friends with Coby. Garp didn't care much and just pulled the blond kid along, because in the end it was all the same for him. The morning rose a couple of minutes ago and the old man woke the kids for training under the eyes of compassionate Marines. The blond boy was already down for count but Coby was slightly more resilient and Garp upped his strength a notch.

He easily dodged another attempted kick from the small pink haired boy and just punched him in the gut for his trouble and the boy just fell like a bag of potatoes and stopped moving. Oh well, he might have gotten a bit too hard on this one. He was still breathing and that was enough for the Vice Admiral.

"Send them to the infirmary, I'll check on them later." He told one of his men and they carried both boys to rest. He'd have to give them more exercices before sparring, they really were too weak for his liking. At least they haven't given up yet.

"Captain! There's an unknown ship in the horizon!" Garp raised a brow and checked the direction his soldier pointed. From what he could see it was in a pretty poor state, maybe they had been attacked by pirates. Boring.

"Send a group for rescue, Bogard can take care of this."

The Vice Admiral went to get some food, rescue operations weren't his thing.

.

Garp stared at the tied up men and felt incredibly disappointed that he missed this fight, even if they didn't look like much. The report of the soldiers was actually pretty interesting.

"The struggling ship was in fact full of bandits, Goug the Cutthroat was recognized immediately and a fight broke out. We defeated them with ease, Captain."

Garp hummed, letting his haki sweep through the group of abnormally nervous bandits as the Marines continued.

"A surprising amount of treasure was discovered, mostly diamonds but they refuse to tell us where they got it from".

Garp swallowed his handful of crackers.

"Do you know what happened to their ship?" He felt their nervosity spike and a smile appeared on Garp's face.

"No sir, but the investigations show that an explosion occured from the ship itself, it could have been an accident or…"

He focused his intent on one particular bandit who looked like he was ready to piss himself, perfect target.

"Spill." The old man said and the bandit did.

"'T-t'was just a kid we found…"

Garp stared at him insistently and after more prodding, the man broke.

"Y-y-y-y-your g-grandson, t-the tall one! We wanted to bring him to you sir b-but he sabotaged us!"

Garp blinked, he couldn't pretend he expected that.

"What did he looked like?", he asked, he needed to make sure.

"Er… tall kid, dark hair, mean eyes a-and he had freckles."

Ace! He caught him by the collar.

"Where is he?"

"W-we don't know! He was gone w-when it happened, our life b-boat was gone"

Garp frowned. He wondered what happened to Ace for him to lose Sabo and Luffy.

"What did you do to him?!" His voice was the most threatening, unfortunately his intent was enough for the bandit to pass out. Too bad, he turned to the other bandits, it was their turn to spill.

~ NN ~

Nojiko knew her situation was pretty bad but not as horrible as she thought. Yes she was kept at the castle against her will and guarded at all times but she wasn't mistreated per say

Her room was simple and small, the window too small to climb through. A small simple bathroom was available as well and she was given some books to read, fiction for most of them and one navigation book she promised herself to steal for Nami if she found a way to get out of here. Nojiko didn't even know what they wanted from her just yet, she tried to talk to the guards to explain her situation, but they didn't listen, she didn't like that one bit. Plus they took all her stuff, including Nami's map, that she was the most unhappy about but what could she do?

So she spent most of her time gazing from the small window and reading the books.

Suddenly the door opened and mayor Sandra herself entered. It's been a couple of days and the woman was still wearing a long dress but coloured beige this time, her hair was tied in a long ponytail behind her back and she wore a long necklace ending with a blue stone.

The teen discarded her book and stood up immediately, waiting for her fate.

"Nojiko, that's right?" Asked the older woman, her guards closed the door, leaving them alone. The teen thought that the older woman must be able to fight if she was trusted as easily with a stranger… or she wasn't even considered a threat. Nojiko decided to remain silent.

"How are you feeling around here? The room is pretty cosy."

The woman was eyeing the furniture with a slight smile.

"Did the guards trea-" Nojiko had enough.

"What are you going to do with me?" Her voice was harsher than she wanted but the situation was pretty frustrating from her point of view. All she wanted was to be allowed to go home.

"We are not going to kill you if that's what you're worried about, despite your blood you're still a human that deserves respect."

"Can I go then? I have a family that waits me home" a family, Nami, Genzo, she missed them so much.

"A decision was made." Continued Sandra lowly, she still wasn't looking at Nojiko.

"You will be sent on an island on the Grand line where you will be provided with shelter in a trusted family" Dread rose in her stomach.

"No... No way I can't… I have to go home!" Insisted Nojiko. Grand line? That was too far, how was she supposed to make it home after that.

"A group of pirates is terrorizing my home and my island! T-the Cocoyashi islands! Please I have to go back!"

The woman was looking at her with a calm face, like she hadn't heard her at all.

"Your ship leaves in a week, I'm afraid the decision is out of my hands concerning you but I can promise to look at your island if something can be done."

Sandra left the room and Nojiko was left alone.

* * *

**I know nothing is official about Garp's conqueror's haki, but here he has it.**

**Please leave reviews!**


	12. Chapter 12

**I got sick and I'm still working and my computer broke. Everything went to hell for a while but I'm slowly coming back!**

* * *

**Ages reminder:  
****Luffy: 9  
****Ace: 12  
****Sabo: 12  
****Zoro: 11  
****Nojiko: 13**  
**Coby: 8**

* * *

Sabo was inspecting the documents he stole from the bandits just as he was checking the weather. He couldn't pretend he was at ease with the situation, Luffy's silence weighted on him. Even though from looking outside he could tell it was night time, his young brother was probably sleeping. He knew Luffy only blamed the lie about Ace on him, but the blond still couldn't help but feel guilty about Ace's disappearance too, he wanted to solve this, to find his brother.

The green haired swordsman wasn't sleeping yet, he'd been sitting in a corner of the room for a while now but didn't say anything so Sabo just successfully ignored him, engrossed with his research from the documents he stole from the bandits.

From what he found, the main base of the bandits in East Blue was a small undocumented island called the Franke Island but it was at least a week away and they would have to stop for supplies on Grenadine Island from the Syrup Archipelago and it would delay them for a couple of hours and…

"Hey, let's fight." Sabo was cut out from his thoughts and turned briefly to Zoro then went back to his work.

"No." He made a conscious effort to keep the bite out of the word.

"Alright, good night." said Zoro, yawning and walked through the door, Sabo didn't answer.

Part of him wanted to blame the swordsman for losing them in Roumba and in a way he actually did blame him without admitting it. But another side of him told him it wasn't really the other's fault, he should have gone with Ace in the first place, he should have thought about the stupid narcolepsy pills, he should have… Sabo wished he was smarter and stronger, he missed Ace and he didn't want to see Luffy's sad eyes on him again.

~ DD ~

He finished wrapping the guy's ankle in a splint with some leftover wood and rope from the wreckage when the kid suddenly woke up. The dark haired teen leant up in a sitting position and screamed, making the other jump in surprise.

"Water in the boat!"

He then paused and looked around him.

"I found land hell yeah!" He almost stood up then winced at the pain the movement brought to his ankle.

"Ow crap ow."

"Careful, I set it right but it's still swollen."

The lost teen finally seemed to notice him and stared at the light blue haired guy, frowning.

"Hi" This one smiled excitedly, his eyes shining gleefully. How was he forgetting his manners now? He was just so happy to have another person here, he was trying to contain his excitement in as not to scare the other guy.

"Who are you?" asked the guy.

"It's rude to ask before introducing yourself." The older declared, the grin still on his face.

"I'm Ace." The other sighed, seemingly exasperated and also tired. He did wash up on the beach unconscious, he should have checked for a concussion. He opened his mouth to ask about it then closed it. Oh it was too tempting.

"Hi Ace, I'm Ace."

Ace blinked, the untrusting frown dissolving into confusion.

"Eh? You can't be Ace! I'm Ace."

Ace-not-Ace smiled and answered playfully, satisfied by the first reaction but keeping his seriousness.

"Yes I can, I'm Ace and you're Ace-two."

"Ace-tw… what do you mean I'm the one who has to be Ace-two?! I'm the first Ace!"

He looked a bit upset now but Ace-one wasn't deterred.

"Technically I was on this island first, so I'm Ace and you're the second Ace, Ace-two."

Ace-two's mouth opened in shock then after a couple seconds his face reddened and Ace-not-Ace couldn't help it. It was just too funny and broke the tension by bursting out in laughter, this guy was too easy to mess up with. He wiped a tear from his face, now sitting in front of the dark haired teen and declared.

"You get to be Ace and I'm Ace-two. What do you think?"

Ace blinked, not entirely catching up with the joke but at least seemed to calm down slightly at the answer but then made a face, seeming unhappy about something.

"Ace-two is a real shitty name." Said Ace unhappily. That's what bothered him? Well… He was right, it really was a shitty name, he thought for a bit then got an idea.

"What about Deuce? You know like the cards? You're the Ace and I'm the Two, Deuce!"

Ace seemed to think about it then nodded.

"Okay you're Deu- wait what is your actual name?"

The blue haired teen smiled widely at him.

"Didnt you pay attention? My name is Deuce, nice to meet you Ace!"

~ ASL ~

"You didn't sleep." Luffy said, yawning as he leaned against the steering wheel. Sabo looked absolutely exhausted, with long bags under his eyes, like he spent the night working. They were on the deck and it was covered in a lot of papers and maps Luffy couldn't even begin to understand. Sabo did try to teach him at some point but it was just soo boring. He must have worked really hard all night.

At least he was brightening with his presence and that made Luffy quite happy with himself. He knew visiting his brother would be good.

"No I didn't but listen, I figured out where they took Ace!"

Luffy jumped up from his tired haze and jumped over his brother's back, trying to look at the boring documents and try pay more attention. Sabo caught him with only minimal fuss and explained him something about an organization and some islands but Luffy only paid attention to the important part.

"So we have to go to Gravel Island before we find Ace?" He didn't agree with this idea much, why couldn't they go to Ace now?

"Grenadine." Corrected Sabo and said they needed food. Luffy couldn't protest much, foodless Luffy was worse than unhappy Luffy.

"Genalone."

"Grena- close enough. We'll stock up on food and we should be able to find Ace."

"Yeah food! We'll find Ace after that for real, right?! Hey Zoro! We know where Ace is!"

Ace being absent, Luffy managed to convince Zoro to sleep next to him the night before, on one of the two mattresses instead of an empty hammock, he said he only agreed because his brother had been kidnapped but Luffy was taking whatever he could get.

Zoro arrived behind him and leant against the mast, yawning. The swordsman was looking at Sabo with a puzzled face, like a tiger looking for prey in the jungle, well… more like a cat looking to catch some fish. Talking of that...

"Hey hey Zoro wanna fish with me after breakfast?" Luffy asked.

Zoro blinked then shrugged.

"Sure, just a sec." He turned back to Sabo.

"Hey, Captain Two, wanna spar later?" Sabo didn't even turn to look at him.

"No, I'm busy." And that was the end of it, Luffy opened his mouth in surprise, it actually made lots of sense for Zoro to want to fight his strong brother. They should totally make a sparring event when they got Ace back. He was sure Ace would like Zoro too, they had the same gruffy feeling about them.

As soon as they arrived in the stock room, Luffy went head first inside a barrel to find what he wanted and then started eating as much as he could.

"He's not going to sleep?" Zoro asked as he followed him.

Luffy pondered the question, eating food didn't take him much brain power, he did have to focus when he almost ate chicken by accident and threw it at Zoro who caught it.

"It was his turn to take the night so it's fine. He'll sleep later I guess. Usually we sleep during the day when we were on guard. Tonight's Ace's night so I guess you can do it, right?"

Zoro blinked.

"Never owned a boat before, you'll show me what to do, I'll learn."

Luffy nodded happily and thought about the meat he would be able to eat tomorrow, his punishment was over right? He still kind of felt guilty cause Ace wouldn't eat it with him, maybe he should wait more? He really didn't want to wait more but Ace was still missing.

"I'ma bring Sha'bo'sh breakfash't!" Said the dark haired boy, his mouth full of food, the other nodded and Luffy scoped some bread and fruits for his brother and ran back to the cabin.

~ ASL ~

As it was, the Deuce guy was weird. Not in a bad way, more like crazed out from the sun way. He was older than Ace, maybe by two or three years and to the young teens dismay, way taller than him too. His eyes were dark green and the upper half of his face was hidden by some kind of swirly black mask. His light blue hair was close to Ace's length but it was slicked back from his face. Deuce was rather thin, he didn't look like a fighter, but then Ace couldn't really tell, he'd just met him after all.

The young man had been on this deserted island for more than two whole days by himself and he looked so eager to share every single second. Just too happy to talk about everything, how he spent the first day counting the seagulls and how thirsty he was then, how relieved he was when the rain came down.

And yet the blue haired boy didn't say a single thing about himself. His real name was a mystery and he didn't talk about how he came to this island or why. Ace wanted to ask but seeing the guy he decided to wait, he thought that if he wanted to talk, he would. At least he seemed decent at setting his foot right, it still hurt but it didn't feel wrong like it did before. In a couple of days he would be alright.

"... and the fish was rainbow! Like all the colors and y'know I've read that those are almost always poisonous. So since it was as good as dead I decided to check it out for myself and dissected the fish with my knife and…"

"You did what?"

"Dissected the… yeah I wanna be a doctor when I'm older! I just need to go to the Academy in... oh yeah I lost all my money…" Deuce stopped talking and was staring at the void, an imaginary dark cloud over his head. Feeling a little weirded out at the sudden reaction, Ace decided to just fill the silence.

"Well I got kidnapped by bandits, set them on fire and escaped on a boat but then some kind of small sea king tried to eat my boat and I threw my food barrel on him!"

Deuce stared at Ace with wide eyes.

"You fought a Sea King by yourself? That's pretty wicked!"

Ace couldn't help his smile, he liked this weird guy, he was about to explain how it happened when he felt the downsiness of his narcolepsy kicking in. He barely heard he the other scream his name before he fell asleep. Maybe he should have explained that earlier, whoops.

~ NN ~

"The prisoner is missing!" Those words echoed in the corridors of the castle. If Nojiko knew the place a tiny bit better, she would already be out of here but as it was, she was hiding in a huge purple vase. She wanted to wait until they took the search outside so finding her way out would be easier, unfortunately, someone walked by. The teen froze, listening, she recognized the confident feminine steps immediately as they stopped in front of the vase and someone opened the top fake plant. Nojiko groaned, it was the third time the woman found her so easily and the teen could never figure how.

"There you are, please hurry, your food will be served at your room soon." Said Sandra's calm voice.

The blue haired girl never bothered fighting, Nojiko never really trained to fight and Genzo's bo staff lessons didn't count without one. Plus she had the feeling that behind Sandra's old nice lady facade she was super strong and Nojiko didn't want to try her tempet. At least, despite it being her seventh attempt to escape, she never got punished for it. "For a human being, wanting to escape imprisonment is only natural." She explained and Nojiko just gave up trying to understand how she could keep her here against her will while having such a philosophy. Whatever, adults were weird.

She was led back to her room and as promised her steaming plate of vegetable soup was waiting for her, the door was locked and she was left making another escape plan.

~ DD ~

Deuce stumbled backwards on the sand when he heard his words.

"You're a pirate?!"

They tried to fish a bit in the morning but the sun was now pretty high in the sky and it was too hot to do anything but talk. This revelation surprised the teen but it also kind of made sense. The strength this kid exuded was impressive and he believed that he didn't lie about breaking a sea king's face seeing the state of his boat. Ace was very straight forward in everything he said and he just dropped this bomb like it was nothing.

"Yeah, since like a month ago." The dark hair scratched his chin, trying to remember, not especially taking notice of Deuce's reaction.

"Why? Pirates are… evil" He choked out, pirates were criminals, thieves, murderers, why would this kid even…

"If I tell you why, will you tell me why you wear a mask?" He asked curiously and the blue haired blushed a bit thinking about it. People did tend to mock him about it, at least Ace didn't look like he was going to.

"Er… it's a boring story." And it was, the other kid looked so confident and cool, he'd rather having Ace getting to his own conclusions about his story, there really was nothing in his. He ran away, that's it and he wasn't going back.

"If you're not telling I'm not gonna talk either." Ace said and Deuce sighed. He hoped that staying vague enough would keep it entertaining enough.

"I just… ran away, with the mask I… I don't wanna be found. Took some money to be a doctor and… I... lost it..."

Deuce crossed his arms on his knees and started muttering internally again about his lost money. Ace seemed to be quick to react.

"So you stole money, and you say I'm bad." Ace had an almost mocking expression and Deuce couldn't help his blush.

"It-It's not the same! I'm gonna pay them back when I'm a doctor!"

"Well, I never stole money from people who didn't deserve it." Ace crossed his arms on his chest and said proudly, Deuce wasn't convinced, he could argue that his parents deserved it but it would mean talking about them.

"Er… Who did you steal from?" Ace blinked and started to count on his fingers.

"Nobles… pirates, bandits… some sake from Dadan…" Ace stopped at the fourth finger, frowning.

"You didn't tell me why you're a pirate." Asked Deuce and the other smiled widely.

"I just want to be free. Pirates can go everywhere and do everything they want!"

"Not for the treasure?"

"A bit for the treasure too… But I wanted to be with my brothers and on my home island we couldn't." Deuce got curious but seeing his dark look (Ace really had a mean glare), he decided it could wait.

"And who's the captain?" Ace's answer was proud.

"All three of us!"

"Is that even possible?"

Ace nodded proudly then laughed.

"At least until we're old enough to go on our own. In the meantime we'll make a name for ourselves!" He sighed "They're my poor little brothers who got lost in the wide ocean…"

"Aren't you the lost one though?" Ace blinked at the comment and scratched the back of his head.

"Yeah, but I'll find them! As soon as we're out of this island!"

Deuce smiled a bit, he said we, and it brought a warm feeling to his chest.

~ ASL ~

Sabo opened his eyes and instead of the uncomfortable chair of the cabin he found himself in one of the mattresses. He couldn't remember when he fell asleep, in fact he couldn't remember going back to the cabin. His mind was hazy and his body heavy, it wasn't as restful as he wished it was. He couldn't remember his dream but knew it was unpleasant. He got out of bed, noticing a smaller figure sleeping on the other side, his limbs sprawled all around him. Luffy slept like the dead, snoring loudly, his legs miraculously having missed his face by a couple of centimeters. Sabo pushed those feet away and yawned, leaning up, something was nagging at the back of his mind, something unpleasant but he couldn't tell what. He stood up, feeling awkward in his steps and opened the door to the sun. It was past noon, the sun was high in the sky. The blond teen walked barefoot on the creaking wood, looking around him. They should have arrived to Grenadine Island already, or at least around the Archipelago. Where…

Sabo saw Zoro. In front of the steering wheel. Holding it. Oh no.

* * *

**This chapter was supposed to be longer but when I went over the 4000 words mark I had to swap some things to the 13 chap, sorry. I want to keep the chapter's length stable but if you'd rather have me posting more words per chapter, do say so. I will post the next one sooner tho, give me just a couple of days to polish it!**

**See ya**


	13. Chapter 13

**All nighters reading stuff sucks when you have to wake up the next morning.**

* * *

Ages reminder  
Luffy: 9  
Ace: 12  
Sabo: 12  
Zoro: 11  
Nojiko: 13  
Coby: 8  
Deuce: 14

* * *

~ NN ~

She stepped inside the room with a sigh as the door was locked behind her. Another failed attempt, she managed to get outside of the palace this time but…

Looking through the window, it was quite obvious why she failed her escape, she should have thought about that before planning this one. Guards were everywhere in the yard, probably to protect the castle from outside forces but it's all the same to her, she couldn't escape from the main paths, not that would stop her from trying.

Nojiko decided to rest for now, she was exhausted from running around the corridors.

.

She woke up from multiple loud voices from outside her room. Nojiko groaned into her pillow, she didn't get enough sleep. She still rose, curious enough about what was going on, it was quite late in the night after all. She walked to the door silently and pressed her ear against the wood.

"...clothing for the young lady. Please allow me to at least do that."

She could barely understand what the guards whispered between themselves before they answered.

"We need to ask the Mayor…"

"It's just some clothing my daughter doesn't need anymore, nothing else I swear, please…"

A sigh then a loud noise against the door and Nojiko winced, someone started to unlock the door before knocking and it was loud in the silence of the night. She returned to her bed and faked waking up.

"Yes?" she said in a tired voice, this one wasn't even fake, she was still exhausted. The door opened. A young lady carrying a pile of clothing was smiling at her, someone familiar.

"Ah, sorry to bother you this evening young Lady. I don't know if you remember me…"

"Ms Camille, glad to see you, you allowed me to stay at your home for a couple of days."

"Y-yes, young lady. Back then we didn't know…" She glanced behind her and continued.

"I just wanted to give you this so those jerks can stop growling like guard dogs. Have a nice night!"

Nojiko took the pile in her arms feeling something smooth slipping in her hand. She mechanically thanked the lady, and the door closed before getting locked again.

Now she was alone she put the pile on the desk and checked the paper she was given.

"_The king's room has a secret passageway. Please take care princess._"

Nojiko bit her lip, being addressed as a princess was still pretty weird but she felt quite grateful about the information. If only they said where the room or the passageway was… The king's room, where could it possibly be?

She looked at the clothing now, the paper still in her hand. Most of fabric was made of different hues of blue, it looked way fancier that anything she'd ever owned, weird...

A loud voice from outside the door surprised her, it looked like the Mayor herself came to yell at the guards then someone started unlocking the door.

Quickly, Nojiko hid the incriminating evidence inside her pillow and got barely the time to leave the pile of clothing on the desk before the door opened. The woman wore a long white dress, looking more like a ghost than a person, her usual makeup and jewlery was absent, it really seemed like she just woke up as well.

"Good evening, I heard you received a suspicious gift tonight?"

Nojiko fake-yawned and nodded.

"On the desk, I wanted to check it tomorrow…" Sandra smiled pleasantly and a shiver went down Nojiko's spine.

"You don't mind if we examine it then? Just to make sure it's nothing dangerous. If it's alright it will be brought back tomorrow."

"Er… sure." Nojiko said hesitantly as the woman closed the space between the door and her desk in less that two steps.

"Your visitor didn't say or do anything strange, right?"

"N-nothing I noticed Ma'am" She could feel the woman's eyes drilling a hole at her skull in the dark, she didn't look back, glancing at the door. The woman eventually let go and simply said.

"Have a good night then"

She took the pile of clothing and Nojiko hoped Ms Camille didn't leave any more messages in it. The teen nodded and waved as she returned in her bed.

The door closed for a second time tonight and Nojiko released a breath she didn't remember holding as she shuffled to get the paper again, rereading it. She had a new lead to get out of here.

~ ASL ~

Ace was pretty surprised to be talking so much. He wasn't the talking type usually, in fact he didn't tend to bond with strangers ever, he mistrusted them, even more when they were older than him. But now… Now, after being alone with Deuce for more than a day, he missed his brothers. Deuce reminded him of Luffy in his silliness and of Sabo when he was explaining his failed dissection attempts (because he, in, fact had no idea how to do a dissection, he just knew that some doctors did it sometimes and it was hilarious to hear about). So Ace told Deuce a bit more about them, how Luffy's recklessness pushed him into dangerous situations, how Sabo played the nice brother whenever Ace (rightfully) punished Luffy. Or how they played pirates back in Dawn island before they sailed to become actual pirates in the sea.

Deuce was a good listener, he reacted to their adventures with envious awe. They ended up spending the night talking about their lives about their dreams and how they could be accomplished. Ace made his decision in the morning, when the stars started to vanish and the clouds became purple from the rising sun.

"Deuce, what if you became a doctor on a pirate ship?" Deuce jumped from his lying position and looked at Ace with wide eyes. The younger teen couldn't help his blush, he was trying to be subtle about it but Deuce was smarter than he acted most of the time.

"I mean… Would you want that?" Ace added.

Deuce's smile was a little wobbly, like he was trying to restrain it.

"It's… when I become a doctor… I don't really have any other plans… I kind of wanted to settle down and… " Deuce's face was suddenly determined and he sat in front of Ace.

"If you'd have me, would you allow me to join your crew w-when I become a doctor?"

Ace blinked and sat up himself, a nice feeling blooming in his chest.

"Yeah, that would be cool." Deuce's smile was shining.

"But I need to become a doctor first! I will work hard! To be the best!"

Ace knew it was his dream and smiled at Deuce, raising his hand to shake.

"We have a deal. You become a doctor and join my crew."

They shook hands and the sun was rising.

~ RZ ~

The night had been pretty boring up until now, Luffy showed him what he was supposed to do, carried his sleeping brother to his mattress and basically passed out on him. The swordsman had honestly wondered how did a kid like Luffy manage to stay awake all night for his own watch but in the end, didn't question it. The calm night was boring but the morning was way more interesting.

When the disheveled blond stared at him with horrified surprise that morning, Zoro wasn't really sure what was going on, maybe he did something wrong, his captain didn't say anything when he used the wheel and Zoro knew he did nothing wrong. In the end when the older brother jumped from the cabin's position and tried to kick him in the face, and Zoro stopped him with a sheathed blade, he was simply glad he didn't leave swords in the cabin. (He wouldn't make that mistake again after that pirate's attack).

Despite his lack of weapon, Sabo was fast and hit hard, his moves had the unpredictability of someone who learned on the go and it showed. The swordsman wasn't sure he would have been able to defend himself without his tools, he never really trained in hand to hand combat, he knew how to throw a punch but that was pretty much it.

Yes, Zoro had no idea what prompted the blond captain to attack him but he was all for it. He'd been waiting to try his strength for days now and the blond teen always rebuffed him up until now. His speed was the most impressive if he was honest, his rage fueled strikes were very precise but he was only aiming to hurt, to bring pain, not even going for his vulnerable side, the one he patched up not that long ago. Zoro defended himself well and gave him back as much as he could without serious injury. While he was itching to cut, he didn't want to initiate that kind of fight. Yeah the blond Captain was clearly angry at him about something but he wasn't aiming to kill him.

When the first punch to his face landed, he managed to spring his sheathed blade into Sabo's side to push him away at the same time and both of them flew at opposites sides. Zoro fortunately landed against a bag of food that was laying around near the wheel (he was sure that was Luffy's doing), his stitches didn't feel like they opened yet. Sabo wasn't as lucky and fell to the lower deck and on the floor, that must've hurt, it was at least a two meters fall, Zoro couldn't see him anymore but he knew better than waiting for him to come back. The green haired teen looked over the railing and saw the blond captain on the floor.

When he rose, Zoro knew it wasn't over and slipped a third sword in his mouth, it was just the beginning.

~ ASL ~

Luffy was surprised by a loud crashing noise coming from above him. He blinked a little, not immediately aware of his position, he was on the wrong side of the bed again and he yawned. Another crashing sound made him jump, it was closer. He stood, almost stumbling on the blanket, and walked outside, finally noticing the two teens fighting on the deck. When Zoro pushed Sabo to the lower deck, the young captain was hit with a dilemma. Who was he supposed to be cheering on?

He frowned, a finger on his forehead, Sabo was his big brother but Zoro was his new subordinate and he didn't want him to feel left out. So Luffy decided to cheer for both of them, completely missing the atmosphere.

"Go guys go! You can do it!" He jumped happily, he was even kind of jealous, they didn't invite him for the spar but he could wait until Ace was here! It was going to be so cool!

But as he climbed on the mast to see the fight better he noticed something at the edge of his vision, a small island! Maybe they could get their food here and they wouldn't need to go to Gasking Island and get Ace faster. Luffy jumped from the mast and bounced against the floor in the direction of the steering wheel, he missed but he managed to catch it and turn it towards the island.

"Hey! We have an island!" He yelled so his crewmates would hear him, it was apparently enough to pause the fight 'cause Zoro jumped back. It looked like he had gotten hurt the worst of the two with his bleeding lip and bruised cheek, Sabo was mostly just out of breath. They both turned to where the island was and Luffy took his role as the temporary helmsman very seriously and took the telescope to check it out. It was the first time he was the one to spot an island, he was usually too absent-minded to notice.

Disappointingly, it was pretty small, like a giant beach or maybe like desert with one only tree… Underneath the tree were people and… It looked like… No way!

~ ASL ~

"Sabo! It's him! It's Ace!

"What?!"

What did he mean? Sabo looked at Luffy who was starting to tear out, like the crybaby he was and Sabo didn't know what to think. Was that some kind of trick?

"It's Ace! Ace is on the island! We need to go!" Throwing the telescope in his direction so he could check for himself, Luffy was heading over the railing. Sabo still in shock wasn't able to react in time. Luffy wanted to jump over the railing and join Ace. Despite being still hurt all over, Zoro was the one to catch his captain before he fell into the water.

"Stupid Captain! You can't swim!" he said yelled at Luffy who caught him and was crying loudly.

"We found Aaaaaace!"

Now Luffy was secured, Sabo allowed himself to check through the telescope.

It was a small patch of sandy land and it didn't take him long to find the only two figure standing on the beach.

How the hell?! It was Ace, his brother and he was waving at him while another guy with white-blue hair was running around madly.

"... SLINGSHOT!"

A splash in the distance surprised him and the absence of both Zoro and Luffy suddenly got really noticeable. Luffy jumped again, with Zoro this time.

He used the telescope to check and he saw a motionless Luffy being pulled to the beach by Zoro, he could hear him yelling at Luffy from where he was. He felt a little guilty for beating him up now, Sabo shook his head and focused on anchoring the ship, they got Ace back and he still couldn't believe it. Did Zoro randomly lead them exactly where Ace was? Without even knowing it? He would think about this miracle later, he needed to make sure this Ace was real.

~ ASL ~

"Stupid Luffy!" Ace laughed, too happy to see his brother to complain much. He had no idea who the beaten-up green haired guy who flew with Luffy was but since he just saved Luffy from drowning he wasn't about to complain.

"Aaaaaaace!" Luffy jumped at Ace and he caught his drenched brother with ease. He was crying like a baby once again but the older couldn't say much about it since he could feel his own eyes prickling. He would forever deny that the salty water on his face was coming from his eyes and not Luffy's wet hair. Sabo would… He looked at the ship and saw his other brother rowing on their safe-boat towards them. They were both fine and that's all that mattered.

It was Sabo's turn to join their embrace, it was more manly and he was noticeably less wet than Luffy but he was incredibly happy to see them. Luffy kind of calmed down but still didn't let him go, mumbling something about meat against his chest and Ace was too busy holding onto Sabo as well to care. Sabo looked tired but he was smiling widely.

"Dumbass! You made us worry, getting kidnapped like that by those stupid bandits!" Sabo told him but the relieved smile on his face countered his argument.

His stomach chose his moment to growl. They probably had food on the ship! He was so hungry he could eat an entire boar! But before he forgot, he pulled his excited future first mate by the arm to show him to the other captains. Deuce had panicked seeing the pirate ship but Ace knew better.

"Hey I found the first first mate of the crew! That's Deuce, he's gonna be a doctor! That's Luffy and Sabo, I told you 'bout them and this guy is… uh…" He told Deuce then hesitated.

Ace stared at the green haired guy, he just noticed the swords on his belt and wondered where the hell he came from. The answer came from Luffy.

"Zoro's the first first mate! I found one first! And he's a swordsman!" Ace frowned and boogied the hell out of Luffy who made pained sounds. Ace was pretty sure he was faking it, he was made of rubber and it probably didn't hurt.

"What do you mean you found one first!? I found Deuce two days ago!" Ace retorted.

"F-found Zoro on Roumba! When you got lost!" Luffy whined and Ace let him go, checking out Sabo's reaction who just nodded his head with a mocking smile.

"Yep, Zoro's the first first mate. Nice to meet you Deuce." Sabo smiled more nicely to the confused older teen who let out a choked out answer.

"N-nice to meet you all! S-so I've heard you've got water and food?" He mumbled and Luffy was the first to react to that.

"Food! Let's all have a party! A pirate party!" His eyes shone brightly and they all headed to the boat, they were apparently going to have their first pirate party and no one complained.

~ NN ~

With quiet steps, Nojiko entered the office from the door she just lockpicked. It wasn't the best talent she inherited from Bellemere before she died but it was admittedly one of the most useful. The guards didn't seem to have figured out how she opened the door of her room and never seemed to have noticed the missing cutlery from her meals.

The office was quite big, the ceiling high, it was pretty dark in here but she didn't dare turning the lights on, she was still hiding after all and as long as they didn't notice her missing from her room she would be fine.

The message she got from Mrs Camille was telling enough, there was a secret passageway in the castle so the young teen decided Sandra's office was her best bet.

Nojiko walked along the curved wall, looking for anything suspicious from the Moon's light but she couldn't see much. What she did see were some strange coded documents she wasn't able to read properly. From the unsealed envelopes next to them she could tell those were letters. She briefly asked herself who the mayor could be sending letters to but wondered. Did she really want to know? How could it actually help her situation?

She took one letter that stood out, it was way shorter and seemed hastily written.

_"Emergency, need, backup, RA men, Cosko  
__Ivan"_

She wondered who was this Ivan but mostly what RA men meant and decided to look for it, for some reason she felt like it was important. The letters seemed to be arranged in a chronological order, the one she just read was lying between one dated 27th from last month and another letter from the 1st of this month. Nojiko put the letters back as they were and moved towards the desk and opened the drawers to try to find some kind of notebook that might be an organizer and after a little search she found a worn notebook showing this year's number on the cover. She looked at the dates between the 27th and the 1st and found what she was looking for on the 29th. Apparently Sandra sent no less than nine people, mostly guards, on vacation and they all left on the same day. She frowned, trying to remember reading the papers back then. The 29th was only two weeks ago, she recalled something did happen, something big involving the world government and the… the Revolutionary Army?! RA, was that what it meant? She let go of the notebook like it burnt her fingers, letting it fall on the table.

Why was she researching this? Nojiko did not want to get involved but her curiosity got her too far. Placing everything back very carefully she decided it was enough.

After locking the door back she decided to return to her room. If she didn't make an escape attempt, Sandra couldn't blame it on her if anything was amiss, she didn't know if any other safeguards were put on the office. She was still shaking slightly when she passed the sleeping guard before locking herself back.

Sandra had contacts with the Revolutionary Army and the young teen gathered what she could remember from this organisation. From what she knew from the World government newspapers they were a bunch of criminals who were leaving chaos on their wake. It was absolutely terrifying. They brought war, took down kingdoms and… The Oykot kingdom, they took down the Oykot kingdom. The thought made her shiver, it wasn't her home, she couldn't remember this place ever being her home but… The Revolutionary Army were the ones who… Nojiko sat on her bed, munching on her bottom lip, her thoughts not stopping and her stomach churning.

They took down a country, how was she supposed to fight against them?

She didn't get much sleep that night.

* * *

**Long chapter. I had so many plans for this fic but the motivation is beginning to fail me. I will at least try to get to the Arlong arc but I can't even promise I'll get there at this rate. Not enough motivation or support I guess. **

**I might just go into hiatus and continue it later? I'm leaving for a long ass trip in october for two month abroad so I don't know how often I'll be able to post anything, I'll probably write during the trip at least. I have other OP projects that I wanna work on.**

**See ya! **


	14. Chapter 14

Hello friends, how is that global health crisis going? Good I hope. I found some inspiration to continue this story, I don't have much ready in advance for the next chapter so I hope you'd provide me motivation to write more. Here we go

* * *

Ages reminder  
Luffy: 9  
Ace: 12  
Sabo: 12  
Zoro: 11  
Nojiko: 13  
Coby: 8  
Deuce: 14

* * *

Summary: After the events of the fire of the Grey Terminal, Sabo didn't end up leaving by himself as he was caught by Ace and Luffy. Instead, all the three of them left for their own adventure.

After encountering Coby and saving a village where the boy remained, they went for another adventure. In the bandit island, Roumba, they ended up separated. Luffy befriended Zoro, a wounded young swordsman and Ace was captured by bandits. Sabo having found Luffy and Zoro fought some bandits, stealing their stuff and tried to go after the ship his brother was imprisoned in. Ace managed to escape just to get stranded on a deserted island and meeting Deuce, a hopeful doctor student. Shenanigans later, Zoro led the Freedom, to the small isle, finding their brother and his new friend.

In the meantime, Monkey D. Garp received a letter from Dadan where she explained that his grandsons vanished. As he investigated their whereabouts, Coby encountered his path and managed to get himself a spot on his ship and is working there with Helmeppo as a chore boy.

* * *

~ RZ ~

"Zoro you're bleeding." Luffy said when they got on the Freedom and everyone turned to him, noticing the widening patch of red on his side.

The green haired swordsman did the same and sighed, kind of disappointed. He managed to avoid breaking the stitches during the fight but it seemed like going for a swim with his captain under his arm was enough to rip them off his skin. It didn't even hurt that much, the burn of the salt was only mildly irritating. He, of course, wasn't aware that a normal person would be screaming their lungs off from the pain by now. Zoro fortunately knew that he should clean the wound as soon as possible. When he lifted his face again he noticed that the three brothers were staring at a flustered Deuce.

"You're a doctor." Stated Luffy and the blue haired teen seemed ready to protest but Ace slapped his hand on his shoulder.

"Heck yeah he is! He's gonna be the best doctor ever!"

Luffy nodded then suddenly pouted.

"Wait no way, I'm gonna find a better doctor for my crew! The best of the best."

Ace immediately turned to the younger captain to defend his first mate who looked overwhelmed by their argument. Was this guy supposed to patch him up?

"No you won't! Deuce is gonna be the best doctor better than any doctor!"

While Ace and Luffy argued, Sabo gently pushed Deuce inside along with Zoro so they could actually do the healing part.

They didn't have an infirmary on the ship, it was too small but they at least had a first aid kit that Sabo somehow produred. When Zoro asked the first time he got healed, Sabo had told him he got it as a gift from a future marine friend and the green haired teen left it at that.

"Okay er… Zoro right? Could you remove your shirt so we can have a look?"

Zoro complied effortlessly.

"What the…?! How did something like that happen?!"

Deuce looked so surprised and Zoro sighed, it was just a hole in the skin nothing to be freaking out about.

~ NN ~

Nojiko didn't dare try to escape again during the next day, fortunately, the Mayor Sandra didn't visit her either so that might mean that she didn't know about her escapade, hopefully. The young teen didn't know what to do anymore, she thought about going back home, about the Revolutionary Army, about trying to blackmail them into releasing her but she suspected it would have the opposite effect. She pushed herself backwards from her chair, letting it balance on two feet. What could she offer to Sandra for her freedom?

She suddenly slipped and fell back on her chair, hitting the floor.

_Ow_

Nojiko winced in pain, that was dumb, she rose from the floor, rubbing at the back of her head, her despair went far and she didn't know what to do anymore.

The paper she was given was still hidden in her pillow and she wondered if she should keep the useless object. _The king's room has a secret passageway. Please take care princess. _She knew those words by heart now and she was annoyed by their uselessness, how was it supposed to help her? Even if she found the right room then what? How would she even find the passageway? One mistake would be enough for the nocturnal visits to stop, she would be more guarded at night and wouldn't be able to go anywhere.

Her gaze went to the only candle of the room, the one shining on her books in the evening when she wanted to read. She slipped her hand to find the paper, better burn it now before anyone found it, she was just putting the kind Ms. Camille in danger by keeping it. As the flame rose to burn the paper she noticed something strange, there another message behind the paper! She quickly stopped the fire by steeping on it, forgetting that she wasn't wearing shoes and burning her foot.

"Ow ow ow…" At least it was successful and she pulled the darkened paper next to the flame again, without burning it this time. There, in elegant letters was a secret message.

"_brick 12:20 right wall_". She held the paper a little bit longer, astonished then smiled, it was still possible, she wouldn't give up. She dried her tears and rose again, it wasn't hopeless, she could escape! Nami was counting on her as was the village. If the Revolutionaries wouldn't help her, she would escape and figure out something else.

Now it was worth it, she would keep looking for the right room and then hopefully escape.

~ DD ~

Deuce finished stitching up the wound, cleaning it one last time with rubbing alcohol so it wouldn't get infected. He scrunched up his nose, the smell of it was pretty strong. The young man could see the swordsman flinch at the contact but he didn't protest vocally.

When finished, he started cleaning his hands in the bucket of water Sabo brought. It was the worst wound he's ever seen and Zoro looked barely bothered. He did look away when he started sowing the skin but now it was over, the green haired swordsman looked like he was napping.

_Badass._ Deuce thought, _stupid brave but badass, _half worried half admiring.

The blond captain entered the room and was now checking his stitches and whistled at Deuce's work.

"Where did you learn to do this? I thought you weren't a doctor yet."

Deuce rubbed the back of his neck, trying not to look too embarrassed.

"A-ah it was just from a book I read some time ago."

He couldn't tell him that his mother was a tailor and she taught him how to sow very early. His chirurgical stitches were just Connell stitches, meant to fix clothing without showing thread.

The needle was different though, longer, bent around, and he didn't expect the needle to be so slippery with the blood either, would maybe be easier with gloves. He struggled for a couple of minutes until he got the hang of it. Deuce was also containing his excitement at doing his first real medical procedure, his captain's foot didn't count. He still wanted to look kinda cool in front of Ace's brothers. He was proud and this little lie meant nothing.

"Well it's pretty impressive to learn that from books."

Deuce shrugged nervously and diverted the topic to Sabo.

"How did you learn then? I mean you're the one who stitched Zoro up before right?" The old thread that he removed didn't look so bad.

It was Sabo's turn to look embarrassed.

"I… I kinda did what I saw a bandit doing. I'm not any close to being a doctor, really…"

Deuce smiled, glad that he could actually be useful. Before he wanted to be a doctor more for the status, the fame, the pocket money his strict parents didn't allow him. He was good at caring for others too so it helped but now… now he had a new ambition and he was even more sure he could do it this time. But, he remembered, there was still the issue of money…

A dark cloud hovered over his head and he whined internally, how could he solve this issue…

He shook his head suddenly. No he couldn't mope now, he was going to get the money from scratch, find a job and become the best doctor that Ace wanted. For him and for his crew!

When he lifted his face, Sabo was looking at him weird. Deuce felt his embarrassment grow.

"Are you okay?"

"Haha yeah, just figuring out some stuff…"

So much for trying to look cool…

~ ASL ~

Ace was a little surprised by the amount of food left, particularly by the amount of meat, Luffy usually ate everything in a couple of days but now the chicken was on it's way to get rotten and they needed to eat it before it was too late.

"I didn't eat any meat!" Said Luffy by his side and Ace blinked.

"I know my punishment wasn't that long but I didn't feel like eating any until you came back!" Luffy added, eyeing the meat Ace was checking, drooling.

Ace completely forgot about the whole incident if he was honest, he didn't even care if Luffy held his promise or not, he expected Luffy to fail as soon as Ace was out of sight but the fact that he held for so long…

The freckled teen brought Luffy closer by his arm, and pushed at Luffy's straw hat, getting it stuck against his face for a second while he boogied him.

"Silly brother" he smiled while Luffy struggled against his grip.

It meant a lot to him, that his young brother cared so much, he was really pleased but he admitting it was too much. He let him go after a couple of seconds.

"Let's eat all of it now, okay?"

Once Luffy was done checking if his hat wasn't ruffled, he smiled widely and took the barrel his brother handled him.

"Yeah!"

~ NN ~

The next morning she decided to continue her doomed escape attempts with the secret objective to find the king's room. The office she visited wasn't it so she needed to look out for the right possibilities. The teen would disregard the closets and other small bedrooms as not being what she was looking for, she needed to think logically. The castle was tall with its white walls and there was way more floors than she thought there would be but she was pretty sure the king's room must be pretty high up. If invaders attacked, the soldiers must be able to protect him. Plus, the door of the king's quarters must be decorated and big, so she would look for exactly that, it was her best bet at the moment. One of these nights she would find that room, the secret passageway and escape.

"The Lady escaped again!" Nojiko didn't move as a guard passed by the curtain she was hiding behind, she counted ten but at the seventh number a door opened not far from her, she couldn't see who it was but she recognized one of the voices.

"...want the gold from the South East room. It's the only thing keeping the Mayor up here, if she doesn't prove herself at the Summer Festival, there's no saying what would happen. Another revolution would bring this country to ruin and the Marines would take advantage of it to take power back." Said a first voice.

"But what if the gold was stolen? Wouldn't that be…" Another voice answered before fading out, Nojiko didn't know what to think and counted ten again before running around another corridor. There, Sandra herself was waiting with a smile.

"Ah, I was wondering why you didn't try yesterday, you're not sick, are you?." Nojiko groaned under her breath and followed the woman back to her room, she would have to try another time, it was time for dinner soon.

~ ASL ~

They returned to the beach as the night started to fall and made a bonfire from some broken barrels and the dead tree that used to be there. It would help to warm up the meat and start the party.

None of them looked like they really knew what a pirate party was though. Luffy said he did but Sabo wasn't one hundred percent sure his young brother knew what it was actually about. After all, they were too young to drink and didn't have any drinkable alcohol anyway. They sat in a circle, the half moon bright above them, the three captains sitting all next to each other with Ace in the middle. To his right, Luffy was eating his food as fast as he could and attempting to steal Zoro's next to him. To Ace's left Sabo was focused on cooking the food right, most of the meat on the grill was already cooked but just needed some warming up and the blond captain took care of checking on it with Deuce next to him just watching everyone with awe, he'd never had a party with friends before!

Ace started by telling them about what happened to him, mumbling quickly about the way he got caught and explaining in great detail about how he set the bandit's ship on fire and escaped. Deuce was the one who talked next, he was a little shyer, unused to having an audience but in the end he mostly told about their stay on the island they were partying on, how he made a fishing rod and how Ace broke it the previous day.

"Wasn't my fault the fish was too big!" Sabo was mostly throwing some glances at Zoro, he kind of wanted to apologize for his behavior the day before but doing it with everyone around would be weird. He guessed that the green haired kid didn't even blame him for anything but he still felt kind of bad.

Luffy took advantage of the discussion to steal some food from Ace's plate and bit into it, his brother noticed and tried to pry him away only for Luffy to jump back and run away, the meat still in his mouth. Ace started to chase after him with the laughs of Sabo and Deuce. When they came back, Ace still nooging his young brother under his arm, Deuce suggested something interesting.

"I think pirates sing when they have parties…"

"Yeah yeah! We need to sing and drink!" Added Luffy trying to bounce on his spot, struggling against his brother.

"Sing?" Blinked Sabo.

"That's a good idea, bandits did that too, remember Sabo?" Ace told him, his fist falling on Luffy's head in realization, this one finally managed to get away and scrambled next to Sabo.

The blond remembered, they often left Dadan's house whenever that happened, it was too loud to sleep after a hunting day.

"Do you know any pirate songs though?" He asked.

"Er… no not really…" Deuce mumbled turning to his right where the green swordsman yawned.

"I don't." Said Zoro, laying down on the sand, seeming ready to nap again. Still feeling sorry, Sabo left him at it and turned to Ace who shook his head, Luffy jumped proudly.

"I know one! Shanks taught me! I don't remember all the lyrics but it goes like this…"

He cleared his throat and started singing.

"_The islands in the south are_

_Warm__〜 _

_Heads all a-swoon-swoon_"

Ace was the first one to break into laughter. Both brothers remembered hearing Luffy singing it in the forest when he was bored and they both started singing too. Deuce simply clapped along while Zoro was still lying peacefully, apparently deciding not to participate.

"_Buncha fools__〜 _

_The islands in the north are_

_Chilly__〜 _"

The night was warm and Luffy stood up and danced around the fire as he sang.

"_Heads all a-brr-brr_

_Buncha fools__〜 _"

Sabo joined him and Ace pulled Deuce with him and they all danced and circled the fire.

"_The islands in the west are_

_Stormy__〜 _

_Heads all drop-drop_

_Buncha fools__〜 _"

Luffy tripped on Zoro's face who suddenly found the will to wake up and chased after Luffy around the beach.

"_The island in the east are_

_Easy_〜

_Heads all light-light_

_Buncha fools_〜 "

Zoro caught up to Luffy and they wrestled in the sand while Ace cheered for his brother. In the end Zoro surrendered to avoid his wound opening again and Luffy sprung on Ace to fight him too.

"Deuce, so you said you wanted to be a doctor, where do you need to go?" Asked Sabo, sitting down to eat more food and watching his brothers play in the corner of his eye.

"Erm… Oykot Country, they have the best Medicine Academy, I just need to work for money, they won't let me in for free." He lowered his eyes, frowning while Sabo hummed, mumbling something about a castle and a map. Zoro laid down again but wasn't sleeping and was simply watching the sky.

"That's where we need to go then." Sabo continued "We have a treasure but we need to turn it into berrys first, what do you think?" Deuce blinked, understanding.

"You would..?"

Sabo put his hand on Deuce shoulder and smiled.

"You're part of this crew now, your captain will gladly pay for you." They both heard Ace's muffled protest in the distance and Sabo laughed.

"With those three and Ace as your captain, we will need a doctor as soon as possible, you can't imagine all the trouble they get in."

"And you too!" Said Ace, managing to tie Luffy's limbs together then freeing him when his brother finally surrendered.

They ate some more and danced and sang again until they dropped, Ace first in a bit of narcolepsy then Luffy followed along, falling on his brother. Sabo wondered if they should return to the ship for the night but decided against it seeing Luffy asleep so fast as well, Zoro didn't take long either, sleeping not far away from them and Sabo laid down on the sand, near the fire, looking at the dark sky littered by stars. Tonight was a precious night he wanted to remember. He heard Deuce do the same, yawning and lying on the sand.

It was a peaceful night.

* * *

Made a peaceful chapter here, next crewmember incoming soon I guess. I also made up the rest of Luffy's song because I wanted to.

The posting rythm absolutely depends on the reviews, thanks for reading this story

Bye


	15. Chapter 15

**Hello! I wanted to be done with 16 before posting this one but seeing as this one is pretty boring I'm giving you this now. **

**Enjoy**

* * *

Guest: Thanks for the review, it's appreciated. I like your idea but if things were that simple where would the fun be, right? Some of your point are close tho!

* * *

Ages reminder  
Luffy: 9  
Ace: 12  
Sabo: 12  
Zoro: 11  
Nojiko: 13  
Coby: 8  
Deuce: 14

* * *

~ C ~

"Hey, what if we just spill it in the toilet?" whispered Helmeppo into his ear and Coby simply frowned, their bucket was full of dark brown water that needed to be changed but they were a solid thirty meters away from the railings of the ship. He couldn't deny he wished he had a little less work to do, between Garp's new exercises and the various tasks they were given by the crew, he felt exhausted and in pain all over. At least when the old man beat them up, they were allowed to pass out, it wasn't happening anymore. Coby shook his head.

"If Lieutenant Bogart catches us, we're not hearing the end of this..." And they'd have to clean those toilets with a toothbrush like last time they tried to avoid their chores, not happening again.

Coby glanced at the corridor and the next five rooms they needed to clean.

"Let's empty them now or we'll have to start over." Stated Coby lifting his bucket and he could hear Helmeppo sigh loudly before he followed.

The life on the ship wasn't so bad, in fact, he learned so much everyday, about navigation, marine training, protocols, even though most of them seemed to be overridden by the Garp Rule. If Garp didn't want to, it was not happening. He was explicitly told by some marines that it was very different from any ship they worked on before.

"It's because Vice Admiral Garp is strong enough to be an Admiral but he always refuses the position." And at that, Coby and Helmeppo's mouths dropped to the floor, they knew he was strong but this was way more than he imagined from his friend's grandpa, no wonder they were terrified. He kind of missed them but at least he had Helmeppo with him. Apparently, the older boy never had friends before either and they now got along just fine. Coby could even say that Helmeppo was his best friend now and he wasn't taking this new friendship lightly.

They opened the door to the sea and spilled the buckets overboard. It was a dark stormy evening, it was raining hard but the sea remained pretty calm. Coby was relieved that he didn't follow Garp outside in the rain. It was the third island they stopped at in the past couple of days but this one was different, it was a bandit island called Roumba he heard some marines say and there still was a bandit presence in here. Coby jumped when he heard the boisterous voice of the Vice Admiral returning to the ship, it was coming from the sky but it was… impossible, right?

"BOGARD!"

The ship suddenly tipped on one side and Helmeppo almost slipped overboard. Coby caught him by the arm and pulled him up. It was definitely Garp's voice, he was back fast. He scooted towards the direction of the voice.

"Coby Coby wait we shouldn't go…"

Coby was too curious, shooshed his blond friend and kept walking until he heard voices at the next turn, the rain was muffling it a bit but the pink haired hid behind the corner to listen in on the conversation.

"... can't believe HQ never noticed this! Call a warning on Captain Tuggings he's the one who is responsible for this area."

Coby and Helmeppo looked at each other with a horrified expression on their faces, he was in a bad mood, if he caught them now...

"Right on time. Brats, stop hiding and get over here!'

Coby jumped again in surprise and swallowed hard, not sure how Garp noticed them but he wasn't about to chicken out from an order. Helmeppo followed him with a whine. "Coby why did we need to listen in…"

Bogard was with the Vice Admiral, a serious expression on his face and water dripping from his hat, and Garp...

The rain didn't do anything about Garp's terrifying presence, in fact, it made it worse. His drenched dark/grey hair was falling on his eyes and his usual grin was absent. He was holding something in his left hand.

Coby walked towards him, his knees trembling a bit, he's never seen him that serious.

Once he was in front of him, Garp showed him what he was holding, it was one tiny blue sandal, a bit muddy with one broken strap.

"Whose sandal is this?" Asked Garp, with a lower voice than previously but it didn't even scare the pink heard kid further, he was focused on the shoe, he was so surprised to see it here. Luffy wore sandals too but his were red, Sabo wore boots and Ace wore blue sandals, in a bandit island… Not a lot of doubt was possible here.

"It might be...Ace… I-it' s Ace's… I think…" he mumbled, then straightened, "...sir!"

It was removed from his face and Garp nodded.

"That's what I thought." He vanished inside the ship, and Bogard turned to them.

"You can go back to your work, you still have an hour before dinner."

"Yes sir!" Both boys said before hurrying to get their buckets, relieved to have escaped from some painful training. Coby wondered what Ace's shoe was doing on a bandit island, what kind of trouble did his friends get into this time?

~ ASL ~

"No you can't eat now, you've had food ten minutes ago." Stated Sabo to a pouting Luffy, sitting on their last barrel. And he should have expected that, not only Ace and Luffy were their usual wormholes selves, there were two more people on the crew, Ririka's generous donation lasted them up until now but yesterday's party put a real dent in their food provisions.

Luffy huffed and talked Zoro into fishing, he knew whatever they caught would be his to eat.

They needed someone who could cook, so they could finally stock up some dry foods and stop having to buy expensive pre-prepared ones. A padlock too, thought Sabo, for the stocking room. Maybe even another ship, with a kitchen, as much as he loved the Freedom it was getting too small, Deuce's departure would help but it would be a temporary solution, they were going to have more crewmates that was for sure so they needed a bigger ship.

~ NN ~

It was early morning and hopefully everyone was still asleep. Nojiko was ready to leave, she was almost certain it was the right one. The reason she thought it might be the right room was that it was only on the second floor and usually really well guarded during the day, she could never reach this floor without the guards noticing her. Even during the night there was one, but this morning he left the room unguarded (maybe went to the bathroom) and she needed to work fast. Adrenaline coursed her veins, the lock was way harder to pick than any other room and she struggled for a bit and just as she heard someone incoming the door finally opened and she slipped it, closing it behind her as silently as she could.

The guard was back and she waited, making sure the guard didn't notice the light of her candle under the door, because if he did, she would be pursued before she could make an attempt to leave. After a few seconds she sighed internally and brought her light to see the room, hoping it was the right one and she suddenly understood why this room was so guarded. Gold, a lot of gold coins all over the room with golden chests on the shelves and piles of berrys everywhere. She almost gasped, that was a lot of money, enough… enough to buy back her village and free Nami. The idea was here but she couldn't steal all of this even if she was able to carry all of this on her person.

She was lucky she didn't step on one of those coins because that would have been loud enough for the guard to hear. It was a treasure room with no windows and more money that she'd ever seen in her entire life. And yet, Nojiko was disappointed, no amount of gold she could carry on her person would be able to get her out of this castle. She sat on a clear piece of floor next to the door and waited for a way out. The guard was still here and she wasn't supposed to be near this room. She was really hoping that this room was her ticket out and now she was stuck with all this money taunting her, if she had all of this… her village would be free, she never felt that powerless. She cried a little bit then shook herself, no giving up now, she would escape this castle, it wasn't over yet. Maybe if the guard fell asleep or maybe when he changed his shift he would...

"The little lady escaped again!" someone yelled in the distance and it was enough for the guard to answer to the call and run after the voice. That was lucky, she was pretty sure Sandra would have been the one to catch her here but luckily she was able to lock the door behind her and slip to the first floor before she was found behind a curtain. As usual she was led back to her room. She wouldn't visit any more guarded rooms she decided, it was way too risky. She would still keep the couple of gems she found as a glistering reward.

~ ASL ~

Ace sneezed hard, almost letting go of the rope he was holding and wiped his nose. He hoped he wasn't about to catch a cold… on the other hand he had a doctor now. They spent a couple of days on the ship now, apparently Deuce worked on a ship before and was giving Sabo some tips about navigation and they were both sharing notes. He was pretty glad those two for along so well but he should have guessed this one. They were both pretty smart while he and Luffy barely knew how to read, of course he was better than his little brother but he really wasn't interested in learning the boring stuff, fighting was different though.

"Okay it's good! Thanks Ace!" Yelled Sabo from the wheel and Ace climbed down the mast, noticing that his foot barely hurt anymore but frustratingly enough the pain was still there. Deuce told him to avoid using it too much but that wasn't going to stop him, he was finally free from the bandits and the boring island, he wanted to move and fight and do things. That's why he turned to Luffy and Zoro, and joined them. They were both having a nice sparring match on the deck and Ace was eager to do the same. He sat down on a barrel to watch their moves.

"I'm taking the winner" he said and Luffy's happy woop got his young brother a hit on the face with one of Zoro's sheathed blades. Ace repressed his protectiveness to go defend his brother and instead laughed at him. Luffy stood up, ready to fight again but Zoro shook his head.

"Your nose is bleeding, we said first blood, you lose. " Luffy made a frustrated sound then wiped his nose, spreading the blood all over his cheek and turned to Ace.

"Then I'm taking the winner too!" He smiled, sitting down on the floor, cross legged, almost bouncing in place. Ace stretched a little bit walking towards the sparring spot and got ready to fight.

"Are you sure you can fight me? You're still wounded." He asked. It had been a little less than a week since their party on the beach but Ace saw the state of his wound in passing the day before when Deuce cleaned it. It was still looking pretty ugly, bruised and red all around the stitches, would be a shame to hurt Luffy's first mate any more than he was.

Zoro scoffed at his words, placing his sword between his lips, still audibly answering him.

"If that little sting can stop me, that means I need to train more." Ace smiled and jumped to punch him first. Zoro dodged easily but it gave Ace the opportunity to kick him, Zoro didn't let the foot land and blocked it with his sheath. The material was pretty though against his knee and the dark haired boy winced internally, regretting his pipe, he should have brought it along.

Ace spun again, faster than Zoro could react and landed his pointy elbow on his cheek. Zoro barely reacted and used his free hand to push the sheath against Ace's stomach, missing him as Ace jumped but still got him in the side. As the dark haired boy backed off again Zoro leaned down, mumbling against his sword.

"Two sword technique: Rhino's Revolve"

Ace blinked, unsure about what Zoro was going to do, then faster than he was able to react, he received two flat swords in the solar plexus, making him groan in pain, he didn't lose his footing though and leaning back to pull the swords with him, he kicked Zoro right in the face. That was apparently enough to split his lip and he backed off, his brows frowning in confusion.

"You're bleeding, I win." smiled Ace, standing back up with a victorious grin. And after a few seconds, Zoro nodded with a wild smile.

"Your turn Captain."

Luffy didn't need to be told twice.

~ MDG ~

"What the hell is that pirate doing here? I will send the information to the nearest base." groaned Boguard, leaving Garp alone in the room. The Ties, of course it had to be one of these goddamned Shibukai, he wasn't especially in the mood of chasing the Joker's bases around East Blue and would let headquarters deal with that. He had grandsons to find and would refuse any orders to investigate the black market. Sangoku probably knew this and wouldn't give him a too bad time about this until their next meeting. He'd help if he was in the area but he didn't want to give him too much hope about his involvement.

Garp turned towards the maps, frowning. Ace had been captured but he obviously escaped around the center area. Problem was, they could have gone anywhere, from the Yonkai islands of the south, the Oykot kingdom of the north or even towards the redline. He was confident enough that he could easily catch up to them in East Blue but in the small chance they got on GrandLine… He didn't want to think about it, giving up on them was unthinkable. He slid his finger on Logue Town, he would wait on their way there and the closest were the Kokoyashi islands, he'd never been there, it looked pretty boring normal islands, he recalled Nezumi was the one responsible for the area, he'd send him a message.

~ NN ~

She counted to ten and walked around the corridor, the guard was gone. She hoped she was going inside the _one_ and as she stepped in front of it, she was almost certain it was the King's room. The doors were huge with golden decorations that were coming loose from time, all she had to do now, was to lockpick it. But as she slipped the first piece of metal inside the golden lock, the door unlocked and in panic Nojiko tried to run away but it was too late and a hand caught her arm. It was a familiar feminine hand, holding her almost painfully and her stomach fell. The woman looked at her curiously before her eyes fell on the fork Nogiko was still holding in her hand.

"So that's how you escaped your room every night, I was almost certain someone was breaking you out but I should have figured you have more talents than you show."

Sandra was wearing a long pink dressing gown, her hair undone and looking tired, behind the Mayor, she could see the bedroom, a gigantic room decorated with golden vines. It must be it, it must be there, but there was no way she was going through here during the night.

As the Mayor took her tools away, pulled her up and led her back to her room, Nogiko didn't resist and stayed silent. She needed a new plan, anything to escape and she needed to think fast, the festival started in three days.

Sandra woke the guard up by kicking him and scolded him for falling asleep but Nogiko was barely paying attention, the festival, right! During the festival, Sandra would have to participate and give an important speech to the people. Then, Nojiko would be able to strike and slip through the passageway to hopefully somewhere as far away from the castle. The day of the festival, she would wait.

As the door locked again behind her, she was more than ever resolute to succeed, it was her last chance before she would be shipped away to the Grand Line.

The clothing she's been offered still was on the desk, a disguise was what she needed. If there were enough people in the palace she could be able to slip through with a disguise.

Pulling at the fabric, she tore at it until she had a long band of blue fabric, she needed a costume for her new plan.

* * *

**Don't forget to review, bye!**


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